Notts Aim To Start Year With Win

Notts County kick off their new year this afternoon as the Magpies welcome promotion rivals Wrexham AFC to Meadow Lane.

Notts haven’t played in a competitive fixture since Saturday December 18 where they beat Altrincham 2-1 on home soil due to postponements against Chesterfield and Kings Lynn Town, both for very different reasons. During the week, the news broke that some of the Magpies’ playing squad and coaching team had fallen victims to the new variant of Covid-19 as Ian Burchnall admitted that the game could’ve been in doubt. However, following that announcement during his pre-match press conference, the head coach was adamant the game would go ahead and believes his squad has enough depth to go out and beat one of the league’s top sides this afternoon. Whilst it seems that this week had been all doom and gloom for the Notts faithful, the received some excellent news of their own just forty-eight hours following the postponement scare. The club announced that fan-favourite Anthony Patterson had returned to the club for the second time till the end of the season, following his previous recall to parent club Sunderland AFC. As the news broke, the social media reaction to the re-signing succeeded expectation, with a high number of supporters expressing their joy to see Patterson return between the sticks for their side. Following on from this, I fully suspect the 21-year-old to replace Sam Slocombe between the sticks today as well as for Ian Burchnall to name a strong side, despite again the Covid-19 scare within the squad.

As for the visitors, they travel down to Nottingham with 2,000 of their own supporters. The situation for their supporters is different since the Welsh government has temporarily removed supporters from sports venues within the country. Therefore, Wrexham AFC supporters can only attend their side’s away matches and there typically is not any better stadium to visit in this league than Meadow Lane, which they get to enjoy this afternoon. Phil Parkinson’s side currently sit third in the table, this being due to the fact they have played a number more than most in the top half including two more than Notts County themselves. Forward Paul Mullin is who I would suspect to be the danger man for the visitors this afternoon. The striker joined the club in the summer for an undisclosed fee said to have been highly substantial for the fifth tier of English football. The 27-year-old is currently the Welsh side’s top goal scorer this season and netted their equaliser against the Magpies earlier on in the season following Kyle Wootton’s inch-perfect header to open the scoring on the night. I am almost confident that it did not take me to tell you he will be the man to watch for the Magpies today as I am also sure the importance of keeping the forward quiet today has been emphasised by Ian Burchnall to his defenders constantly throughout the week.

So, what can you expect from the game?

Firstly, a tremendous atmosphere. Two of the league’s finest outfits battling it out in the league’s biggest stadium with a packed-out KOP and away end spells to me an atmosphere you would not find elsewhere in this league or any of the two levels above often. I expect the Notts squad to be stronger than people will be imagining as the risk surely had to be worth taking and if it was not, the game would have been off. With that being the case, the hosts regardless will match the expensive squad of Wrexham’s today and I am confident the side will manage to pick up a huge result that could have huge significance at the end of the season.

My personal prediction: Notts County 2-0 Wrexham AFC.

Current form:

Notts County: LDWWW
Wrexham: LWWWW

Probable line-ups:

Notts County: Slocombe, Lacey, Taylor, Cameron, Brindley, Richardson, Palmer, Vincent, Roberts, Rodrigues, Wootton.
Wrexham: Lainton, Hayden, Tozer, Lennon, Davies, Young, Hall-Johnson, Hosannah, Jones, Ponticelli, Mullin.

Venue & time: