Notts County beat Telford on Saturday in the Magpies third pre-season friendly of the summer as Alex Lacey put Neal Ardley’s men 1-0 up before Stags loanee Jimmy Knowles made it 2-0 against the Bucks.
Aaron Williams pulled one back from the spot for the home side but Notts regained their two goal advantage when Wes Thomas latched on to Michael Doyle’s pass to slot home.
That makes it three wins out of three in pre-season but Manager Neal Ardley stated after “I don’t think we’ve had the complete performance in any of the three games but you still have to take loads of positives from what we’ve done”.
Notts face Harrogate on Tuesday night in the FA Trophy semi-final before the final friendly against York City with the National League set to start at Dover Athletic on Saturday 3rd October.
Ahead of Harrogate Ardley stated “It’s a competitive game we’ve got to win and we are desperate to give our fans the chance to go to Wembley”.
The Magpies got vital minutes into left back Damien McCrory at the weekend after a long suffering knee injury with his Manager saying “It’s great having Damo back in. He’s a great character who trains really, really well.”
“He was excellent last season and was a shining light at centre-half in the periods we had a lot of injuries, particularly at Boreham Wood when he was outstanding alongside Connell Rawlinson.”
The Magpies match against Harrogate might come too soon for McCrory to start whilst Casper Sloth is also struggling with a hamstring injury and Ben Turner is on his way back recovering from injury but other than that Notts will look to field a strong side as they aim to reach Wembley for the second time in little over two months.
Kick Off is at 7:45pm Tuesday night behind closed doors at Meadow Lane with the winners facing Concord Rangers in the final with the date still to be confirmed.
*Main image @Official_NCFC Jimmy Knowles in goalscoring form in the Jake Bugg away kit of Notts.
