Game 24 - The Saddlers (H)

Team: Walsall

Date: 01/01/2025

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Stuart Maynard opt for? What will be the key areas for the Magpies to get a victory? What do you think the final score will be?

Have your say below, join in with the Pride of Nottingham match discussion.

Going to be some game this, Pies.

You've found your form again, and we're still marching on results wise, if not performance wise.

I'd take a draw, right now.

Our three wins on the bounce and the return of some of our most important players set us up beautifully for this. But as the only side in League Two to have shown any real consistency, Walsall have to be favourites for this. Hope we can channel the underdog spirit and keep the run going!

 

Walsall are the most consistent side in the division. Their results speak for themselves. They don't get the respect they deserve and they are fine with that I think. They keep doing their thing. 

It has the makings of a classic. The 2 best sides in the division. Home advantage could swing it in our favour. A point would be acceptable. 

The most important game of the season for Notts on New Year's Day. Home advantage should help along with a big crowd to cheer the Magpies on to what could be a vital win.

Walsall are arguably the best team in the division currently & are seemingly a cut above the rest.

A win for Notts tomorrow would be very significant in the run of things, & would certainly send a message to the rest of the division.

I think it will be a very close match, with the odd goal deciding it. A win would be absolutely fantastic, but I would settle for a point. I think avoiding a defeat is very important.

Last season against Mansfield at home, in a similar very important crunch match, Notts were soundly beaten. Notts just need to reverse that against Walsall.

It's Matchday.

CMON U PIES!!!

 

I would definitely take a draw for this game, Walsall are a VERY good side, a win would be a fantastic result.

COME ON YOU PIES!

Stating the bleedin' obvious here, but a win would be absolutely massive. It would show what could be achieved this season.

We are probably in decent place in terms of injuries, I would think Ness will miss out but hopefully Macari is ok and can come straight back into the team. If Josh Martin is still contracted to us he probably deserves another start in the attacking midfielder role, he looked so much better here than at wingback. I guess the other big question is will Jodi start? He'll step onto the pitch at some point today, surely.

I'm really looking forward to it, should be a cracker of a match.

Team to play Walsall.

Looks like Ness, Tsaroulla are unavailable. Cundy on the Bench.

Jatta becomes a different player once he scores. His confidence is high right now, which is great for Notts. We need to see more direct play in the second half. However, even if it ends 1-0, the result would be important. It would keep us nicely within the top three.

Walsall are a good side. They have improved a lot this season, and we need to be sharp in defending their attacks.

Very unpopular opinion, but i think Crowley needs selling. He absolutely has flashes of utter brilliance, but so far twice in ten minutes where he's given the ball away, it seems every game has "crowley.... crowley to...and its given away!" his position means he can't afford to make those mistakes in the favourable positions, i think personally Notts will be much better off without his free gimmie giveaways.

Was that offiside!?!?

3 minutes ago, Morten Johansen said:

Was that offiside!?!?

TIGHT call, i didn't think so watching the replay, but with no VAR guess i'll have to suck it up shame cause i think we deserved the draw

I think Walsall won the league today. We should have buried them by half time. We didn't and you kind of knew what was going to happen in the 2nd half. 

If ever there was a game of two halves this was it, we completely dominated the first half but you just knew Walsall would be a different team in the second half and so it proved to be. 

We really should have had at least one other goal in the first half if that had happened it might have been a different result.

I thought we’d nicked a draw when McGoldrick headed into the net at the end but it wasn’t to be.

Down to 7th now which just shows how tight things are, let’s go and stuff Swindon now on Saturday.

We lost to a very good side. But we did play them off the park in the first half.

I think the players felt the four Xmas & New Year game schedule in the second half unfortunately.

Unlucky at the end not to salvage the point which would have been well deserved.

That cross from Jodi that led to our disallowed goal is hopefully going to be a regular thing to enjoy that will cut open opposition defenses going forward.

Despite this defeat, Notts are still in seventh place in a good position to continue the challenge for an automatic promotion place.

Notts have more games at home than away in the second half of the season. Notts also have one point more than they had at the same stage last season.

A home game against Swindon on Saturday to get back on track once again. Lots still to play for.

It feels very harsh given how good we were in the first half. Walsall's second came in a phase in which we seemed to have weathered the storm and were starting to reassert control, and of courser there was the contentious linesman's flag at the end. But those are the fine lines of a promotion race. "If onlys" don'T win you any points.

Crowley's howlers show why he never made it at the very top level, but his return to the side has galvanised us and is a big reason why we started today in an automatic spot. You're not going to find the complete player in League Two; the key is to manage your players' weaknesses effectively.

Now we need to pick ourselves up again and prove that today's result was a blip. With half the season goe, we're on course for 74 points - 80 points puts us in with a good chance of automatic promotion. We're not that far off.

What could’ve been… First half performance was like a dream, I guess that means the second half was a nightmare.

I think the big two issues second half were the inability to deal with the Walsall press and that we looked absolutely knacked by the 70th minute. We just didn’t react to Walsall stepping onto us, we just played like it was the first half and we had all the time in the world, when we didn’t. Again, not having much of out-ball hurt us, because Walsall stepped up there was more space in behind but we had no-one to exploit it. Everyone in the stadium could see Walsall equalising as we didn’t even look that great in defence, no natural wingbacks is always going to be a hinderance and Platt had a particularly poor second half.

Easy to say in hindsight but I think we should’ve made all our subs and been more pro-active too. Hinchy would’ve provided some fresh legs in the middle of the pitch but the fact no-one came on to replace one off the front three was baffling. Like what was the point of having Brown on the bench if he’s not going to get on when both Didzy and Jatta were struggling to run. I thought taking off Martin was mistake too. I’d have pushed him into the attacking midfield role at the expense of either Crowley or Didzy, who beside their late chances, had poor showings overall second half. I think SM bottled it by not taking off one of them off, Martin was playing well and wasn’t exactly that tired.

Fair play to Walsall turning it around, bizarre not to press from the off though as had we gone in 2-0 that could’ve been a different game. No idea who the first player in will be this January but they need to be lightning fast and capable of playing upfront.

Walsall boss Mat Sadler reacts after their comeback win at Notts County | Express & Star

WWW.EXPRESSANDSTAR.COM

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Mat Sadler felt Walsall looked like a "team possessed" as they mounted a second half comeback to beat fellow promotion rivals Notts County at Meadow Lane.

 

Notts County 1 Walsall 2 - George Bennett analysis | Express & Star

WWW.EXPRESSANDSTAR.COM

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George Bennett gives his thoughts following another excellent win on the road 

 

@piethagoram.bsky.social on Bluesky

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#Notts County v Walsall 01Jan25

 

 

 

At the end of the day there are positives to take from this match.

We totally outplayed the runaway leaders of league 2 in the first half & should have been 2 or even 3 goals up by half time, & there would have been no coming back from that.

Notts are the better footballing side, so the players should take confidence from that.

Another positive was that Josh Martin had a good game once again following in from his good performance against MK Dons.

Jodi showed that he hasn't lost his ability to create chances for other teammates with his great cross that led to the Notts disallowed goal.

If Notts continue to play like they did in the first half against Walsall they will beat most other teams in League 2.

1 hour ago, Robbie said:

At the end of the day there are positives to take from this match.

We totally outplayed the runaway leaders of league 2 in the first half & should have been 2 or even 3 goals up by half time, & there would have been no coming back from that.

Notts are the better footballing side, so the players should take confidence from that.

Another positive was that Josh Martin had a good game once again following in from his good performance against MK Dons.

Jodi showed that he hasn't lost his ability to create chances for other teammates with his great cross that led to the Notts disallowed goal.

If Notts continue to play like they did in the first half against Walsall they will beat most other teams in League 2.

You did outplay us, and were impressive, but I'm sorry to say that is how we approach all games. Look at the stats, and it will prove that point.

 

We deliberately sit back in the first half, apart from the odd foray forward, let teams tire themselves out, whilst we keep our shape and work the opposition out, and hopefully keep a clean sheet or restrict them to one goal.

 

Then we come out second half, fresh as daisies and have a high energetic press, that nobody can live with, and finish teams off in the second half.

 

That nearly didn't work yesterday, as you might have been out of sight by half time, but that is only because Sadler chose to drop Matt, who is a nuisance to play against, and integral part of how we play, despite all the plaudits for Lowe.

 

Hs getting on a bit though so after the usual hectic seasonal run of games, Sadler chose to rest him. It nearly backfired, but didn't, and his decisions are unquestionable at the moment.

 

As has already been said, you're definitely the best side we've played (based on both games) and the promotion places are wide open, if you can be any more consistent than the other teams, that aren't apart from Salford. Jones' return may help with that.