Match Discussion: Game 29 - The Grecians (H)

[PON_News]

Game 29 - The Grecians (H)

Team: Exeter City

Date: 20/01/18

Where: Meadow Lane

What line-up should Kevin Nolan 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.

[Chris]

Bit of a weird game this one.

I hate to say it but I can see Exeter City causing us some trouble and, I am more swayed to a draw. We just have to create chances here, it's simple and if we can manage to cut their opportunities down this will give us confidence. I'm fully expecting a very slow played game - I just hope we can win.

Some good exciting football would be nice, I've missed Meadow Lane recently.

[terteryoup]

heart rate is coming up for the next match! 

[Fozzy]

Another key game and a win would set us up brilliantly for a run of games that are all winnable. Will be interesting to see if we go with Virtue, or Noble to start and a new forward on the bench would be nice!

1-1 to Notts! 

[ARLukomski]

Promotion six pointer. Need to win. Exeter win the gap is only three points. We have to win. 

[liampie]

i dont want to see kn throw the players at exeter, we need to balanced but i think being at home gives us that extra advantage.

2-0 notts

despite the score line i suggest i dont think it will be easy at all.

[CliftonMagpie]

This has to be a win to keep close to Luton, if we drop any more points we are inviting pressure. I would rather see us go up safely than be forced to do it in the playoffs or lose out completely.

Exeter are a nothing team, decent players but they bottle promotion virtually all the time.

[Joe Jones]

Exeter's away form has been woeful in recent months, but their home form has been great, hence their continued presence in the playoffs and not being far off third.

Big, big game - Notts win and they will pull further away from the chasing pack (and there's a lot of teams not far off Notts and Luton eager for one of those tasty top three spots), draw/lose and the whole race for promotion will be blown wide open.

[Chris]

I have to say, I fell Notts performed very poorly yesterday.

The first half wasn't very good at all, we committed players to far up the field and nobody bar Dan Jones had the pace to track back. Stead shouldn't have been playing on his own up front, though why does he insist on dropping to his knees as soon as he gets the ball? Yes, sometimes there was force and pushing but he never draws the foul to a convincing point for me.

Our midfield seemed very capable but sluggish to drive forward anything remotely creative.

Second half I felt Notts played some great stuff, yet we never looked likely to score and we just have this habit of trying to force the play - we need an Alan Judge type player that isn't afraid to shoot from distance. Go on Kevin, get Noble and some of the others to practice this - even Grant seemed woeful!

The referee didn't help but we should play beyond this, we just seemed to allow his poor handling to be bigger than it should.

Exeter I felt was very poor also, they used school boy diversion tactics and frequently cheated. I noticed several incidents which went unpunished, from a two footed challenge to one of their players hitting out at Virtue (for no reason).

At the end of the day we was poor and, I struggle to suggest we deserved anything from it.

[Magic magpie]

With that loss yesterday my nerves are starting to rattle exester are starting to have a late serge. That loss now puts us in danger of the casing pack closing in on us Accrington are a game in a hand and can now go second with a win we need to hold our nerve and play like we have been doing. Cause loosing games like yesterday day dose not get you promoted. 

[liampie]

fans near me kept going on about us missing yates but i think even he would have struggled yesterday.

we started poorly and it became a game of chasing them after the early goal for exeter. i think the better team won tbh, we did not create enough clear chances and for that reason i am disappointed. i think they scored from their first two shots on target! standards are slipping nolan.

[ARLukomski]

I feel like we are gonna bottle this if we keep going the way we are. Nolan got it completely wrong yesterday. If it ain’t broken, don’t try and fix it. No idea why we went with 4-2-3-1 when it’s untried, untested and unproven with this team. Why change a formation that’s been working all season. Hunt plays everyone on for the first goal. Second one is a woeful pass by Virtue. Husin was bought off when he was doing well. Noble and Walker looked quality in the centre of midfield yesterday.  Hewitt is not a centre back, we desperately need to sign some cover. Early in the second half, four good balls were put into the box with nobody’s on the end of them, showing again why we so badly need a striker. Alessandra missed a sitter at the back post. Ameobi won the penalty then afterwards didn’t look bothered. The problem is yesterday’s selection was caused by injuries and again we have no strength in depth. Luton can have injuries and replace them players with players who are just as good. Tootle is ill and we replace him with a grandfather clock. 

[Elite_pie]

The five man midfield just didn't work.  Allessandra, Noble, Husin, Virtue and Grant are all technically gifted players with good passing skills but none of them are ball winning battlers in the mould of Yates and Hewitt, who we missed badly in the centre of the park.  We made it easy for a decent Exeter side by giving them far too much time and space on the ball.  You need someone to do the dirty work  to succeed in this division, yesterday we had no-one.

[upthepies]

It wasn't our day but there should have been enough quality to pull it back at the very least.

I felt Notts performed much better than Exeter in the second half which we dominated.

[Fozzy]

We did dominate the second half, but that was after the switch to 4-4-2, before that we were woeful. If we are to stay in the automatics I think we proved that:

• Shola has to start, Stead can't play up front on his own. He never had any support at all at times.
• Hewitt isn't a CH and has to be in midfield. Nobody was there to break down Exeter when they had the ball. Play Dicko as the Emergency CH until we sign one.
• Hunt was pretty shocking and we badly missed Tootle.
• New signings have to be drip fed into the side and not wholesale changes.
• Play 4-4-2 and stop trying to over complicate things. We got where we are by doing the basics well.

We have to win tomorrow night and we also have to win most of the games up until we play Mansfield as we have a much tougher run in.