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Blair Adams made his first Notts County appearance this season, returning from injury in Friday nights 2-0 defeat by Mansfield and says Notts players must put their bodies on the line when defending in dead ball situations. Notts have conceded from set ball deliveries in the opening games this season and also at the end of last season. He says "It's something we have to work on. You've got to want to head the ball away for the team, put your face in where it hurts. It's something we need more of."Commenting on his return injury Blair added that although being a bit rusty he will improve and feels he can form a successful defensive partnership with half time substitute Graham Burke. He added "I'm pleased to get 90 minutes. I've had a couple of setbacks. I'm looking to get my fitness back now". "I'll be up and down the wing and hopefully chipping in with a few assists". "When Graham came on I thought we linked up quite well. It's promising. The quality of his crosses are a huge asset." "You saw when he came on he put three or four unbelievable balls in." "It was a shame we started lethargically. They got out the traps quicker and that should have woken us up a bit". "We weren't at our best but we've got a good chance to put it right this week".

The Lady Pies beat Bristol Academy 1-0 in FA WSL Continental Tyres Cup competition last Sunday. Notts Ladies had previously lost to Chelsea in the Womens FA cup final at Wembley and again to them, rather surprisingly as they are currently bottom of the league, in FA WSL 1 league the following week. Rachel Williams first half goal was enough to win the match. Ellen White also had a couple of chances go wide and Jess Clarke had a goal disallowed for being offside. Lady Pies manager Rick Passmoor said "this win will have helped restore confidence". “We’ve had a bit of a tough time, but we had ten days to recharge the batteries” he said. “We then sat down and had a real big heart-to-heart about what can we do and where we can get better and a lot of it is just about confidence and hopefully today will go towards that." “We needed to get the belief back. We can’t turn into bad players and a bad team overnight." “We have to look at the mentality of the lead up to the FA Cup and how much it took out of them, and then reassuring them and showing them lots of evidence about how they played in the first half of the season." “Today was about getting that win, getting the confidence back. We had the chances and hopefully there is a bag full of goals coming.” Bristol didn't create many chances and substitute, Frankie Fantom-Brown was stretchered off with 20 minutes remaining leaving them to play with 10 players but their manager, Willie Kirk, accepted that the better team on the day had won. Attendance - 490.

After a great start to the season Notts County came back down to earth with a resounding bang following Friday nights dismal performance in the 2-0 defeat at home to local rivals Mansfield Town. Saturday's fixture also took place with 8 teams claiming victories out of 11, 5 of which have managed to retain a perfect start, as Wycombe, Leyton Orient, Portsmouth, Northampton and Hartlepool United claim back to back league wins. Here are Friday's and Saturday's results. League Two Results Friday 14th August Notts County 0-2 Mansfield Town Saturday 15th August Barnet 0–2 Wycombe Wanderers Carlisle 4–4 Cambridge Crawley 1– 2 AFC Wimbledon Dagenham and Redbridge 1–3 Leyton Orient Luton 2–2 Oxford Morecambe 1–0 Accrington Newport 2–2 Stevenage Northampton 3–0 Exeter Plymouth 1–2 Portsmouth Yeovil 0–1 Bristol Rovers York 1–2 Hartlepool There were 2 home wins, 6 away wins and 3 draws. Upcoming Fixtures Tuesday 18th August 2015 Accrington v Mansfield AFC Wimbledon v Cambridge Barnsley v Northampton Crawley v Portsmouth Dagenham and Redbridge v Exeter Hartlepool v Newport Leyton Orient v Stevenage Luton v Bristol Rovers Morecambe v Wycombe Wanderers Oxford v Notts County Plymouth v Carlisle York v Yeovil League Two Update Game number two of the 2015/16 season and Portsmouth continued their promotion hopes by winning at Plymouth. Leyton Orient ,Northampton and Hartlepool all won and share top spot with Portsmouth on 6 points, behind Wycombe wanderers on goal difference. Mansfield drop to 7th after temporarily occupying top spot, with 4 points the same tally as 6th placed Cambridge. Notts now lie 9th with 3 points. Yeovil, York, Barnet and Dagenham and Redbridge are in the bottom places all losing their first two games. - Notts next game is away at Oxford on Tuesday. Oxford are placed 16th with 2 points, having drawn their 2 opening games. Still very early days but a Notts win will put them right back in the promotion mix, a defeat will add to Friday nights despondency.

After scoring both goals away at Huddersfield in the League Cup. Liam Noble has acknowledged the help that Alan Smith has given him. He has been doing one on one training with the ex England midfielder. He said "For the first goal, it was a great ball back from Kyle De Silva. I had to finish it off but it was all about the timing of the run." "In the past few years I might not have made that run. I might have been lazy or stayed back in the middle." "When you have one up front you've got to get someone on the edge of the box. I think you've got to credit Alan Smith to be fair. He works with me a lot in training about timing my runs to the edge of the box. He's been at the top level so I'm working with the best. He's improved my game a lot." "The second goal I saw the keeper on the edge of the box. I've been working a lot on shooting in training. Alan says to me 'if you don't shoot you don't score'. I saw the keeper out of the corner of my eye and thought why not give it a go." "I don't know if it's the best I've ever scored but it has to be up there. It's one of the best I've ever scored, yeah." "I didn't realise their fans were clapping so I appreciate that. The goals are a bonus but the most important thing was getting through." Premier league teams not involved in Europe come into the next round of the League cup and Liam would like to play his home town club Newcastle United and cited Bradford City's exploits last season as an example why Notts could also do well. Looking forward to Friday nights game against Mansfield, he reflected on Tuesday nights game saying "We knew we needed to play better. Stevenage was good but it wasn't good enough. It lifts confidence. We wanted the season to start well with a big game coming up Friday. I hope we get a big turnout."

Notts County play hosts to Mansfield Town at Meadow Lane on Friday night. Stags boss, Adam Murray says his team has enough to win at Notts. He said "It will be a great test for us going into that environment against a good team but make no bones about it, we are a very good team ourselves and we are not going there to make the numbers up.. I am not going there to sit back and watch Notts County. We are going into a thunderous environment and I want us to play at tempo. They are going to know they are in a game." He also referred to the number of players Notts had signed with some being from outside of England and commented on their quality having played at a higher level. He added "But we've got no fear. We are going there for a local derby and we want to show them what we are about. We've got enough in our changing room to go there and beat them on Friday, so that's what we will set out to do." After nearly being relegated last season Mansfield aim to be in the top half this season. Murray said "We have some tough games coming up in which I think we will do well." Notts have won both their games so far, both away, while Mansfield drew their League 2 opener 1-1 at home to Carlisle and lost 4-1 away at Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup.

Notts County's Northern Ireland international goalkeeper, Roy Carroll, has been handed the captain's armband by manager Ricardo Moniz. Roy said "It was a couple of hours before the game when the gaffer named the team and said I would be captain. I am very proud and it was a great moment for me." "It is the first time I have ever captained a football team and it's a great honour, but we are all captains really and we have to work hard, especially after what happened when we got relegated last season." "We have to give more on the pitch. We have to battle and that's what we did in the second half. The boys came out with a clean sheet too, from the strikers to the defence it was a great performance." Notts opened the scoring, courtesy of Curtis Thompson on 35 minutes with a great counter attack. Moving the ball quickly from defence to attack starting with a brilliant pass from Liam Noble to John Stead, who raced on before crossing to the back post for Thompson to put in the back of the net. Describing the goal Roy said "It was a great goal. That's the way the manager wants us to break away and it was something like 5 seconds and it was a goal. We did that and we proved how quick we can go from defence." Mauwana Amevor added a second goal in the 88th minute, giving Notts a great opening day away result. You can read the full PON match report - Here.

A great start to the 2015/16 season for Notts with a 2–0 away victory at Stevenage, with goals from Curtis Thompson and Mawouna Amevor, though the result was slightly marred by the latter's sending off. The result is exactly what Notts must have been hoping for, with a difficult opening game all is positive. With Notts County now looking ahead to their next league game, we here at the Pride of Nottingham take the time to look at this weekends fixtures and results. League Two Results AFC Wimbledon 0–2 Plymouth Accrington 1–1 Luton Bristol Rovers 0–1 Northampton Cambridge 3–0 Newport Exeter 3–2 Yeovil Hartlepool 2–0 Morecambe Leyton Orient 2–0 Barnet Mansfield 1–1 Carlisle Oxford 1–1 Crawley Portsmouth 3–0 Dagenham and Redbridge Stevenage 0–2 Notts County Wycombe Wanderers 3–0 York There were 6 home wins, 3 away wins and 3 draws. Upcoming fixtures Tuesday 11th August 2015 Capital One Cup – First Round Huddersfield Town v Notts County - KO 19:45 Friday 14th August 2015 League Two Notts County v Mansfield Town - KO 19:45 League Two Update Portsmouth lived up to their promotion expectations by beating Dagenham and Redbridge 3–0 at home. Cambridge United and Wycombe Wanderers also secured 3–0 home victories beating Newport and York respectively. Leyton Orient, another team expected to fair well in League 2, also got off to a winning start beating Barnsley 2–0 at home. Oxford and Luton, two more favourites for promotion, had to settle for 1–1 draws respectively at home to Crawley and away at Accrington. - Notts, after one game lie 6th place in League two on 3 points and separated by goal difference along with Cambridge, Portsmouth, Wycombe, Hartlepool, Leyton Orient, Plymouth, Exeter and Northampton. A Capital One fixture away at Huddersfield is next up for Notts on Tuesday and then on Friday, the small matter of a local Derby at Meadow Lane against Mansfield who drew 1–1 at home against Crawley last saturday. Only 45 more league games to go now, can Notts do it?