Notts County 0-0 Crewe Alexandra (EFL League Two) 22.03.2025

Notts County’s goalless draw at home to fellow promotion hopefuls, Crewe Alexandra, on Saturday afternoon, saw the Magpies slip to sixth in the table, the hosts feeling the loss of Alassana Jatta, who was away on international duty with Gambia.

Form of late has been hard to come by for Stuart Maynard’s side and this result adds to the fact that the Meadow Lane side have now only won three of their last ten outings; in theory, hardly promotion form, but, when you look at form of others around them…

A game shorn of any real chances, there was but a handful of attempts apiece, both Sam Slocombe (Crewe) and Filip Marschall (Crewe) having very little to do in their respective goals.

The hosts’ best chances would fall to first Will Jarvis, who saw his effort saved by Marschall, and David McGoldrick, who saw his effort flash wide of the post in stoppage time, one which could have proved the winner; the visitors meanwhile would see Kane Hemmings (ex-Mansfield Town and Notts County, between 2017 and 2019 combined) fire wide just before the break, and Max Conway pull a full-stretch save from Slocombe as the game headed into the final fifteen minutes.

The result saw the hosts, as mentioned, slip to sixth in the table, and in a little danger of dropping out of the play-offs; next up for Maynard’s men, as they look to gain some sort of momentum, is a trip to Rodney Parade, home of mid-table Newport County, this coming Saturday, 29 March.

Notts County – Sam Slocombe, Lewis Macari, Matty Platt, Jacob Bedeau, Kellan Gordon (Nick Tsaroulla, 64), George Abbott, Matthew Palmer, Will Jarvis, Conor Grant (Mai Traore, 63), Charlie Whitaker (Curtis Edwards, 77), David McGoldrick

Having previously enjoyed as much as a fifteen-point lead at the top of League Two, leaders Walsall have seen that whittled down to just one of late, and there’s now just a dozen points separating first to ninth in the table.

Those leaders would find themselves being held to a goalless draw when home to Gillingham on Saturday afternoon, with second place Bradford City now just a point behind, and the days’ big winners, after thrashing visiting Colchester Untied, 4-1, Calum Kavanagh and George Lapslie both bagging braces.

AFC Wimbledon hold the third of the automatic promotion spots, on goal-difference from Port Vale, after they were pegged back late on in a 2-2 draw with visiting Barrow, second half goals from Marcus Browne and Matty Stevens looking like they’d done enough for the win only for the visitors to strike twice late on, with a 96-minute equaliser from Connor Mahoney.

Port Vale struck late through Ronan Curtis to snatch a 1-0 win at home to lowly Morecambe, whilst Doncaster Rovers, in fifth, were inactive; in the three places directly beneath County Grimsby Town leapfrogged Colchester and Crewe in to seventh place with a narrow, 1-0 win of their own, theirs at home to Newport County, through George McEachran just after the hour mark.

With Port Vale, Colchester, and Grimsby, the latter two facing each other, in action in midweek, there could be a slightly different look to the table come the weekend matches, on 29 March.

With all bar Grimsby and Colchester playing, the remainder of the top nine turn out as follows – Walsall vs. Wimbledon (first versus third), Accrington Stanley vs. Bradford City, Crewe Alexandra vs Port Vale (ninth versus fourth), and Newport County vs. Notts County.

*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).

*Main image @CreweAlexFC action from Saturday’s goalless draw at Meadow Lane.