A part-time Manager taking on a full-time job was always going to be a risk, one where time would be needed if Stuart Maynard was going to give 110% focus on his role at Notts County after three years of Head Coach at Wealdstone during 19 years as a full-time engineer for BT.

One which faltered at first as Maynard got to grips with the job, but nine months in is now showing signs of promise as Notts sit two points off top of the League Two table, they are well within the chasing pack for promotion and after years of free-flowing forward thinking football tried under Neal Ardley, Ian Burchnall and more successfully under Luke Williams, it’s down to a steely back-bone less reliant on stars like Macaulay Langstaff, Ruben Rodrigues and Callum Roberts (remember him), standing up these days are instead the likes of Matty Platt, Jacob Bedeau, Kellan Gordon, Nick Tsaroulla, Rod McDonald, footballers who know the division, who know the football league and who know how to compete, to keep clean sheets and win games ugly.

That’s exactly what they did at home to AFC Wimbledon at the weekend, a scrappy goal was the second half winner from Platt, but more pleasing than performance currently is the clubs’ solid spine in knowing how to defend leads, a clean sheet and a 1-0 win backed by a defence that has totally been rebuilt under the Maynard tenure.

Ask any Notts fan, for all the pretty football they played under Williams, they were often susceptible to offensive breaks due to their high back line and persistence to play the passing game out of defence. In many eyes the likes of Rawlinson, Cameron and Baldwin weren’t simply up to that task, and Maynard has addressed that, Matty Platt and Jacob Bedeau added in the summer to bring in line that defensive resistance, the problem position in goal sorted with the signing of Alex Bass, and despite Notts losing Macaulay Langstaff to Millwall and recently Jodi Jones to injury, they have been less reliant on single stars, more collectively conditioned, ask any fan who sits in the Spion Kop on a Saturday afternoon, Jones aside, there’s no standout this season, they all seem to do their bit, whether it be young Lewis Macari in defence who’s game just gets better and better, Spurs loanee George Abbott who instantly looks a class above, Alassana Jatta in attack who’s powerful and awkward and who will get you goals or good old David McGoldrick, one of our own, ageless, timeless, still possessing that sheer Premier League quality.

Notts haven’t had it all their own way, it’s a tough division is League Two and getting out of it will be a difficult task, but the Magpies have the wings to fly further afield and under Maynard you feel they have the tenacity to bounce back when needed, and go anywhere and get a result on their day, which is testament to the way the Manager has imprinted his stance on the club.

Notts County still do play good football, they have good football players, in particularly through the likes of Dan Crowley and Matty Palmer in midfield, but it’s their defensive reliability which has helped them steer back towards target at the top, currently fourth placed in the table Notts have only conceded eleven goals in twelve games this season compared to 21 at the same stage last year under Williams, when the side were top of the table, but due to their failure to keep clean sheets, they would soon falter away.

This season they have had four clean sheets, are yet to concede more than two in a game and in nine of twelve matches have conceded just one or less, tonight the Magpies travel to Barrow who themselves have only let in nine goals this campaign, the Bluebirds sit seventh on nineteen points just two behind Notts County who’ll be looking to avoid defeat at Holker Street, to progress their season further towards target of promotion.

The match kicks off at 7:45pm and for those that can’t make it to Cumbria, the game will be screened a little closer to home, live at the Nest.

*Article provided by Daniel Peacock (Editor).

*Main image @Official_NCFC Stuart Maynard & Notts have had a terrific start to the season so far.