Chris

This is going to sound bad, however, I have been busy and I forgot all about Notts playing. I saw Notts had scored a penalty, I was pleased and a little nervous from that point. I think this win is quite a big result for Notts, hopefully the team take shape from here. Just very pleased to see Sam Osborne gaining praise for his performance and of course the 3 points.

Both teams started quite well, I felt Notts was the better side for about 35 minutes and the lack of a clinical striker up top was very apparent. I keep being told Notts requires a tall striker, which I agree with but against Barnet it wouldn't have changed much. Notts needs to learn to be more direct, there's a lot more pace in this season's squad, but they're very ineffective with using it correctly. The issue is, we felt bombarding Barnet would have lead with a second goal for us. However, it left us wide open and defensively, it's just not there at the moment. Once Notts concedes, confidence is lost throughout the team and I felt the play after this point became extremely wasteful. In recent weeks, I have felt Mitch Rose has been our best player but he underperformed massively. Enzio Boldewijn is an absolute luxury, did he play well? No, voted as the Man of the Match for simply scoring a wonderful effort. Ben Turner did well at the back, yet the mistake for me was dropping Pierce Bird, who has been quite solid I feel in recent games. The inexperience of Sam Graham, and I'm sorry to point this out really made it easier for Barnet. The fact to the side of him, Dion Kelly-Evans struggled not only with Barnet's height but also their pace. Both of these played well in the first half, yet quickly became the point of threat via The Bee's attack. I would be tempted to use Kristian Dennis has a bargaining chip, his stature and persistent injuries make it hard for me to see how he can be successful in this league. He tried, however, he didn't look effective at all and I realise he's the only natural goal scorer on our books who seems capable of scoring 15-20 goals - whilst I would love this to happen in Notts colours too, I just don't see it happening now that I have seen him against established National League sides. Honestly, I feel if the club can target signing a target man/someone who can hold the ball up - swapping Dennis for a taller and more suitable striker might make the world of a difference. The confidence and pace of this Notts squad will have teams worried, we'll be hard to play, but the goals conceded won't disappear until we learn to sit on the play and attack games properly.