Only three football matches involving Nottinghamshire clubs this weekend with lockdown restrictive to elite sport but plenty of positives with some food for thought as Forest and Mansfield scored great wins whilst Notts County slipped up at Aldershot to suffer their third defeat of their season.

We’ll start at the City Ground as Forest convincingly saw past Wycombe Wanderers to win their second successive match thanks largely to a centre forwards performance of the highest order.

Lyle Taylor is slowly starting to pay back the faith shown in him by the Reds transfer panel scoring his third and fourth league goal of the season and pleasing was the way he scored them, a strikers header at the back post and not giving up on what looked to be a lost cause as Cyrus Christie floated in a ball that looked to be going out of play to wrap around his neck muscles and nod down into the goal before a second of sheer quality, picking the ball up half way and running at defenders before unleashing a low drive into the corner of the Trent End goal.

Two totally different kinds of finishes from a striker, confident in his ability and one showing he has a repertoire that defenders should be scared of.

Taylor is a likeable player, already warming to the city having dyed his hair pink for the month of October in awareness of breast cancer he has been seen at Forest Women’s games and donated money to a worthy cause, a player with an unsettled past he looks to be a man now maturing into a top footballer and having scored against Derby he’s already written himself into Forest folklore.

The striker could well be the difference come the end of the season with his goals important to how Forest do, he seems to have taken over the baton from Lewis Grabban who himself has been fantastic over the last couple of years, Taylor now aged 30 can use his experience to lift the team into the higher echelons of the division but there’s still plenty of work to be done.

Back to back wins for Forest have been great but against recently promoted Coventry and Wycombe they were to be expected. The Reds post international break travel to Barnsley with unfinished business against the Tykes who have beaten the Reds on the last three occasions in South Yorkshire, a result at Oakwell will go a long way to seeing where Chris Hughton’s side are at, before a real testing run of tricky games start against Bournemouth (a), Swansea (h), Watford (h), Reading (a) Norwich (a), Brentford (h), Sheffield Wednesday (h) and Millwall (a) all before Christmas.

There’s a Forest connection at Mansfield Town right now as the Stags new Manager Nigel Clough takes over ahead of tomorrow nights EFL Trophy tie at Scunthorpe with what will be a ‘free’ look at his new side.

The Stags are already out of the competition going into their final group game and Clough will be able to use the match as a way of looking at shape and players as he takes the reigns in full this week after being announced as the new Manager on Friday ahead of a famous win in the FA Cup at Sunderland.

That win was dedicated to Richard Cooper by a number of players who have seen an improvement in form under the Academy boss who stepped into caretaker duty following Graham Coughlan’s departure.

Bringing back a simple uncomplicated philosophy, Cooper used his experienced players well, getting the best out of Nicky Maynard and James Perch whilst allowing the likes of Harry Charsley and in particular George Lapslie to flourish. The onlooking Nigel Clough would have been impressed with what he saw as the Stags were worthy winners at the Stadium of Light, next stop is to prepare his side to get a result on Saturday against Forest Green who are third in the division with ambitions of automatic promotion.

Another team with automatic promotion hopes all be it dented of late are Notts County who after a good start in the National League have faltered no thanks to covid ripping through the side but despite three wins and three defeats from the Magpies six league matches this season it has been the ‘way’ that the side has played which has frustrated many including Manager Neal Ardley.

County’s stop-start campaign has no doubt had an effect on the club as they aim to find a level of consistency that they ended last season with before its premature closure, Notts will be aware that they are currently nine points behind leaders Torquay with a game in hand, whilst the title race isn’t yet beyond the Magpies the playoff places are a more realistic immediate target starting with a win on Wednesday against Stockport County at Meadow Lane.

Notts will have to be at their best however as Stockport are currently second in the table four points above Neal Ardley’s men so a win would very much bring those above into play and when the chips are down the side have been known to previously deliver.

Eleven for eleven many still say Notts have the best side in the league, the Magpies wafer thin squad perhaps most worrying however as they go into a heavy period of matches of eight league games prior to Christmas which in itself will prove a daunting task on fitness (health) and fatigue.

*Main image @mansfieldtownfc Marek Stech and George Lapslie celebrate their win at Sunderland.