Julian McDougall, our resident reporter for all things Notts County FC, tell us what's going on for the Magpies over the international break...
The abstract expressionist Barnett Newman made art which forces the viewer to contemplate the intense present tense moment as fractured. In the 1948 painting Onement 1, an unevenly painted ‘zip’ in the canvas merges two possibilities. A dark red-brown background is divided by a striking vertical orange line that can be seen as both or either a divide and a unification, as it can be interpreted in many different ways with regard to how we perceive the space, separation and/or unity as we move closer and further away from the canvass.
During the international break, something akin to a group of gallery visitors contemplating Onement 1 will surely have been taking place in Notts County’s performance analysis team counsel.
This international break provided a largely undesired hiatus for Notts fans. This was though, at least, a sign of progress. The gap was at least partially disrupted by the Manchester City case, and the endless imaginary of ifs and maybes. Will Notts play at the Etihad sometime soon? Could we even be promoted back to a re-established First Division, given that City are likely not the only guilty party in the Premier League, so if the whole project is deleted, we would go back to the set of clubs that were in the top-flight the season before? Hard to say. If nothing is true, everything is possible.
Notts have been playing well, looking like a match for most of the teams we have played. But the opposition have taken their chances, and we have been wasteful in the final third
Back to the now. September was a bit harsh. We made the unfortunate turn from unbeaten in five to one win in seven. This is fine margins stuff.
The month began with a well battled 1-1 draw at Doncaster, after another clever set of Martin Paterson substitutions enabled Cal Roberts to create the equaliser in his first minute on the pitch. This was a game in which both teams had spells on top, so a draw felt right, and away in a higher league, we could ‘respect the point’. A few days later and still in Yorkshire, Huddersfield would be unhappy not to win, but our resilience and another Ollie Cooper equaliser, this one gifted by their keeper, could even have set up a three-point grab had Luka Smyth took a good chance in the later stages.
Paterson signed a new contract. We play Bradford at home. Everything feels so good at Meadow Lane. And the wheel fell off, somewhat. A poor second half and, after another off-day in terms of clinical actions, 1-0 was a better score than it might have been. Then Reading away a week later looked like a big ask, and it was, but the same pattern emerged, with concerns this is now more of a template. Reading’s acclaimed striker takes two chances, our emergent recruits lack presence. Two defeats, no goals scored.
Where does this go?
Paterson says “the last two games have taught us valuable lessons at this level” and “we have to look at every single facet”.
The good news – Notts have been playing well, looking like a match for most of the teams we have played. But the opposition have taken their chances, and we have been wasteful in the final third. Twelve shots, but only two on target. The fine margins aspect offers hope. Not only of League One survival, but maybe more, if things click.
This could go either way. If the strikers get their eyes in and the front players find their synchronicity, with everyone at full fitness, these margins can change in our favour. If not, this negative momentum would be a major problem, a disruption to the data-driven sustainable progress strategy. As it stands, we have faith. In the brothers, and in Daniel Kanu, we trust.
In the later moments of the post-match at Reading, Paterson goes existential, once again – “we have to ask - what do we have to be?” In the same vein, critics suggest that the experience of looking closely at Onement 1 and working out how to respond to the zip embodies the vulnerability of humanity in the interchanges between possibilities, good and bad, something in between.
This is where Notts are as October unfolds. There is a zip in the data.
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