GOOOOOAAAAAL HALL.

FULL TIME

Fantastic Win Tonight

Lovely night for Notts fans, you don't often win 0-4 away.

So many positives...I'll pick Palmer. He put in a tremendous 70+ minutes, and bossed the midfield. He didn't put a foot wrong in the first half.

Fabulous display, terrific performance.

Without a recognised striker, we had all tge footballers on the pitch tonight and we played fluently. A lot of crisp, sharp passes and touches. No passengers - some outstanding individual contributions and a superb collective effort.

The contributions from all were good but the energy, awareness and effort from Grant, Iorpenda, Bennetts and McDonald were exceptional.

To the Grant “dissenters”, that’s what he gives to the team. He has vision, great touch and he never stops working. That was a truly scintillating performance from him.

Edited March 17Mar 17 by YoopEyes

I'm pleased that Martin Paterson defended Conor Grant tonight. He played in an unfamiliar position upfront & he was outstanding tonight.

Conor is very important to this Notts side. Martin doesn't like to talk about individuals but he did tonight in his post match presser.

Top of League 2 after today's matches.

Hands up all those who would have predicted that score? No I thought not, what a performance from a team without a striker. Four goals from different players, Grant was brilliant in his number 9 role, the goal will hopefully spur him on to score more. Jodie was his usual tremendous self, he put some great crosses in and scored too.

I’m really pleased for the travelling fans too, they’ll have a good journey home they must be absolutely buzzing.

well done Notts well done Martin let’s get on a run to the end of the season now.

Savour those four goals tonight.

Highlights

Player ratings via whoscored.com

Alassana Jatta rated 6.9 when he came on after 69 min

Luke Browne on his EFL debut rated 6.3. when he came on after 76 minutes.

when notts starts like they did yesterday, you know that its all down to execution when it comes to chances. very good football in both halls and notts created many chances. alassana jatta looks back to himself, but i wished he would focus a bit more when it comes to his decisions. brilliant play for the assist, a real joy to watch.

In a way having no natural striker probably focused the players more. Grant was great upfront but at the same time we didn't play loads of high balls for him to challenge for because it's not his strength. Sometimes I think we can get too drawn into the physical battles with the big defenders but last night was a textbook way of dealing with it. Rawson for Accrington had to work harder keeping track of Grant and he knew he couldn't always follow him when he dropped deeper and this caused them loads of problems.

Back to within 2 points of the automatic spots now, we've just got to keep going anything is possible because the results in this league are always surprising.

True @menzinho , the team selected, the formation and the approach meant we played the game to our strengths and on our terms.

So many of these teams want to drag the game down to their level, make it scrappy and physical. We often fall into this trap, but having no option we went out there with a winning strategy - outpass them, outmove and generally outplay them. Rawson and Co's worst fears.

We should always concentrate on our football. As for this particular set up, MP should keep it in our locker to surprise another team in the same way. Although if Jatta stays fit we shouldn't need to.

Edited March 18Mar 18 by theAnticlough

I think it could be worth Martin Paterson considering a similar team to the one that played at Accrington in one or more of the final games. I think Accrington were confused about who to mark because there wasn't a recognised target man.

It is something that Martin can keep in his locker just in case. I am sure that other teams will have been watching & studying a video of that match & as a result will be much more prepared to deal with that eventuality.

Notts just need to play their strongest team available as their best players become available. Playing a recognised striker, if available, from the start, has to be the better call. Whether Jatta is fit enough to start on Saturday will be a big factor.

I think it'd be fair to describe it as 3-2-5-0.

I saw Grant as a No.10 rather than filling in for the striker. Whatever it was, Accy couldn't live with it and they went to pieces.

As you say@Robbie, an interesting option rather than something to repeat in any of the 9 Cup Finals we have left.

One thing I would like to see kept though is the Palmer-Iorpenda CM partnership. What do you and others think?

Norburn's red card let others players in, they took the chance, looked great, and now he has to take a seat on the bench.

I'd like to see Grant and Bennetts given another go v Cheltenham. With Iorpenda next to Palmer again. I thought Palmer sprayed it around at Accy in a way Norburn can't.

I think I tend to agree that the Palmer/ Iorpenda partnership is a good one, the Robertson/ Iorpenda twosome is good too. I like Norburn & he gives some extra physicality to the centre of midfield but his petulance is a downer.

I think Palmer/ Iorpenda should be given another go. I think Tangen played his best match for Notts so a Tangen/ Grant partnership upfront is worth another go. Bennetts is close to a selection. I think Ndlovu should have served his 3 match ban so he should be back on Saturday.