The big Kick Off

A 0-0 draw on the opening Saturday of the season wasn't the awe inspiring performance people were looking for. The first home game of the season left more questions than answers. Whilst it was an improvement on last term there were still some obvious areas for improvement.

The Positives

Quite a lot of good things happened, not least of which was the attendance with 1200 Notts County supporters pushing the gate above 8000. The atmosphere was pretty good.

in terms of the players Cameron Norman had a very impressive League debut looking assured and distributing the ball well. In fact the back four seeemd reasonably solid even allowing for the fact that Brad Walker was not playimg in his favoured role. Connor Wood also showed good movement going forward and all in all the defence worked well. Tom Davies also put in a solid performanc, albeit his booking was silly and unnecessary.

Up front I was impressed with Josh Davison's work rate. His movement was good and he showed promise. 

The not so good

The first big difficulty I had was with Lee O'Connor in midfield. I'm not sure if that worked or maximised the contribution that Lee can make. Connor Jennings also had one of his less impressive games. It was quite warm and I wonder if the hot conditions didn't suit him. Unusually for him I noticed him roasting Connor Wood a couple of times in the first half. The other two midfielders in the starting XI also seeemed below par. I often think that Regan Hendry delivers match winning performance, but on Saturday his contribution was not up to his usual standards. Kieran Morris also seemed a little off the pace. This is, I suspect, a make or break season for Morris. On his day he can be outstanding, but it seems a while since we have seen him at his best.

The Substitutions

Omari Patrick was brought on for Davison with just over 20 minutes left. He wasn't getting much service but the one decent cross he had a chance to make was fluffed.

Harvey Saunders replaced Kieron Morris with 7 minutes left. He showed a great deal of energy but didn't really get much chance to get on the ball.

Zak Bradshaw, on loan from Lincoln City, replaced Lee O'Connor with 3 minutes left. Impossible to assess his potential with such a short cameo.

Overall

This is the sort of game we would have lost last season, taking a point off a well organised Notts County team gives some hope. However, we lacked creativity and guile and seeemed to become quite stodgy in the second half. I would have liked to have seen Solomon brought on to offer something different. Maybe we will see a bit more attacking intent against Accrington on Tuesday? We looked OK, but not great. Of course we have an injury crises so it may be October before we can see what the full potential of this squad is.