Stats Report | Match 14 - Stockport County (h)
Vanarama National League | 23 October 21
Notts County 2 - 1 Stockport County
Attendance: 7,418
I think it goes without saying that as far as performances go this was without doubt the most complete 90 minutes a Notts team has played for quite some time. Despite the calamitous penalty the final score probably flattered a Stockport team full of quality but remarkably bereft of any creativity.
With Simon Rusk sticking with a 3-4-3 formation that had served him well over recent games Ian Burchnall got his tactics spot on with a 3-5-2 formation that saw wing backs Dion Kelly-Evans and Joel Taylor nullify any threat from Stockport's Ben Whitfield and Macaulay Southam-Hales down the flanks. Additionally this gave Notts a 3v2 overload in the centre of the park where a trio of Palmer, O'Brien and league start debutant Vincent made the most of their space and possession.
Palmer and O'Brien worked relentlessly just in front of the back three and Frank Vincent dazzled us all with his movement and touch which constantly saw him creating the link between midfield and the front two of Wootton and Rodrigues in what turned out to be a man of the match performance which included his first professional league goal and an assist.
It's early days but it's clear young Frank provides the added energy and dynamism that has been missing from the Notts midfield for much of this season. You have to applaud Ian Burchnall for his management of a young player that was struggling to get anywhere near the first team until a week ago and the timing in which Vincent was given his opportunity which might just be the missing piece of the jigsaw for the remainder of the season.
Vincent's performance was also another indication of just how well the clubs recruitment policy is working. You can add Vincent to the ever growing list of added value playing assets at the club which includes the likes of Rodrigues, Wootton and Roberts.
However, we mustn't get too carried away, a run of very difficult games continues on Tuesday night against one of the leagues form teams Bromley, followed by a trip to league leaders Grimsby on the Saturday.
The one positive is that with Kairo Mitchell now showing what he can do and competition elsewhere in the squad in all positions Burchnall will have options available to him that will hopefully see his Notts team come out of the other end of these challenging games having not sustained too much damage.
Finally, it would be unfair if we didn't mention on loan keeper Anthony Patterson who despite not having many saves to make was faultless in commanding his area and showed some excellent distribution. With his loan already being extended until 9th January 2022 Burchnall will have to think twice about bringing Sam Slocombe back from injury if Patterson continues to impress.
Key match stats.
The stats actually suggest the game was much closer than it felt at the time. Stockport made more passes into the final third and made more progressive runs but unfortunately for them most of those attacks were dealt with by the Notts defence.
A couple of interesting pointers were match tempo and smart passes. At 17.59 match tempo for Notts was the highest recorded so far this season. Additionally 11 smart passes is again the highest recorded by Notts in this campaign.
Match tempo is calculated by recording the number of team passes per minute during pure ball possession. The higher the number of passes the quicker the game is being played.
A smart pass is a creative and penetrative pass that attempts to break the opposition's defensive lines to gain a significant advantage in attack.
Points needed updated and 1.750 PPG on average would historically see a top 3 finish if sustained. Click on the legend tags at the top to filter options.
Progress updated. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey.
Results tracker updated.
Goal segment chart updated.
Six game segments updated. With all 6 games in this segment completed those 3 defeats in a row succeeded in keeping the PPG lower than the previous six games.
Player stats next and this is the new table that is also available to view on the player stats page of the website here.
Goals and assists chart updated for goals and assists in all competitions.
Goal scatter chart.
Expected goals for the Stockport game.
As expected Notts came out on top in chances created. Not included is the penalty which has a value of 0.76 which would have given Stockport an xG of 1.93, but this would have given a false indication of how the game might have played out, especially when considering xPTS and win%.
The main reason for not including penalties is that more often than not there was no real attempt on goal so to add a value of 0.76 to a teams total would present an inaccurate version of events.
Notts' player xG below. Two big chances for Notts including the one converted by Vincent. Kyle Wootton with the highest cumulative xG at 0.95.
Match xG and xPTS.
It's fair to say it was probably a closer affair in the first half with Paddy Madden failing convert a big 0.52 chance on 27 minutes. Kyle Wootton also failed to convert a couple of chances, one of them a big chance in the first half but made up for it with his goal in the second half.
Frank Vincent showed everyone how to finish a big chance with his 0.50 goal on 68 minutes.