Unbeaten Magpies Take On Robins

Fourth placed Notts County face fifteenth spot Altrincham in the National League tomorrow with the game played at Moss Lane now known as the J. Davidson Stadium for sponsorship purposes.

Coming into this fixture, Altrincham are off the back of a two-week enforced break due to an outbreak of COVID-19 within their squad so you can expect they are ready and buzzing to get out there and play in front of their home crowd once again.

With that break is the expectation that their training sessions have been set up to embed the ways they want to go about taking maximum points against one of the Divisions biggest and best teams this weekend. Brad Jackson will miss the clash due to a red card received in the Robins last match at Wealdstone as will Connor Kirby who suffered the unfortunate injury of a broken leg during the same game which ended in single goal defeat for Phil Parkinson’s team. However, on a more positive note for tomorrows hosts, each of their six goals this season have been netted by six different players (Dinanga, Kirby, Mullarkey, Mooney, Leitch-Smith & Colclough) proving the quality the home side possess in players who can find the target, which could cause some difficulties for the currently unbeaten visitors.

As for those visitors, Notts County Football Cub travel to Greater Manchester looking to increase their unbeaten record to eight games, hoping to close the two-point gap on current league leaders Chesterfield. The Magpies began their campaign with the expectation of yet again challenging for the automatic promotion spot which will end their current two-year absence away from the English Football League. Living up to this expectation thus far, the Magpies will certainly not be looking to slow down any time soon, especially not this weekend.

Coming into this game off of the back of beating Maidenhead United last weekend, the visitors are still without Connell Rawlinson and now club captain Kyle Cameron, who was substituted in the win against the ‘other’ Magpies after going down holding his hamstring. Being light in the central defensive role, Head Coach Ian Burchnall headed into the loan market and introduced Sheffield Wednesday centre-half Ciaran Brennan as his latest signing for the club, Brennan is available for the clash at Moss Lane.

The main threats within the squad for Notts this weekend undoubtedly include Kyle Wootton, who has netted five times in seven appearances this season, followed by the excellent duo Ruben Rodrigues and Cal Roberts who currently share six goals and four assists between them thus far.

Going into this weekend, many including myself expect a close encounter. With this being just the second time the hosts feature as the home side on match week eight of the season, the home faithful are bound to be in full voice in attempt to make it as hostile for the visitors as possible whilst also attempting to motivate their side in picking up their second win of the campaign. As for the visitors, wherever Notts County have travelled this season so far they’ve seen turnouts of away followers just as impressive as their current run of form. With this backing, the visitors will be doing all they can to ensure they are furtherly extending their unbeaten start to the campaign whilst keeping their eyes firmly on the top spot in the Vanarama National League. My personal prediction for this game at the J Davidson Stadium is Altrincham FC 0-2 Notts County, both goals to be scored in the later stages of the second half.

Current form:

Altrincham: DWLWL
Notts County: DWDWW

Probable line-ups:

Altrincham: Thompson, Senior, Kosylo, Jackson, Kirby, Moult, Colclough, Mullarkey, Hannigan, Mooney, Dinanga.
Notts County: Slocombe, Brindley, Lacey, Cameron, Taylor, Palmer, Francis, Roberts, Rodrigues, Mitchell, Wootton.

Venue & time: