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With 100 points and 103 goals this season, Notts County boss Luke Williams continues to strive for absolute perfection as he weighs in on Friday’s 3-0 win over Wealdstone at Meadow Lane.

The Magpies continued to play their part in this remarkable National League campaign, matching Wrexham step-by-step throughout and capitalizing when opportunity arose – Milli Alli played the starring role as Halifax Town ripped from the script ahead of the biggest game of the season. fifth division. have ever witnessed.

While the score suggests a comfortable win and performance, Williams was on hand to criticize his team’s first-half performance, calling it poor despite Sam Austin’s sublime finish after eight minutes that put his team within one goal. on the break.

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In a period of sustained pressure through the middle of the first half, Stuart Maynard’s side created several chances to try to level the game, providing Notts with some nervous moments on defense as they searched for a way to get back into the game to try and continue their run. push for the play-offs.

One thing that became incredibly noticeable over the first 45 minutes was the amount of time Williams’ team was forced to play long, completely dispersing from their usual possession-based style of play.

The Notts boss was on hand to detail the reasoning behind the tactic, saying: “To be honest, we were up against a team that played to an incredibly high line.

“When the goalkeeper comes out to advance with the ball, there is no space to play football and they were very brave to do so, so we tried to take advantage of the spaces behind them.

“Once you do that, if you don’t catch the ball behind the lines, you have to jump up and put pressure on them, so it became a game of two teams with very high lines, very brave in their game and willing to put pressure on each other. .

“Sometimes it was the sensible thing to go more direct, but I don’t think we did it well enough, but the guys recognized that situation and we studied these kinds of things, so I think the decision was correct.” play more direct at times, but the execution was probably a bit off.”

With Williams’s side traveling to the Racecourse Ground on Monday to take on Wrexham in a game that now holds all the more significance given Saturday afternoon’s results, three players were missing from the matchday squad for Wealdstone’s visit.

Goalkeeper Sam Slocombe was one of those players missing, with Archie Mair substituting between the sticks and putting on another impressive display of his obvious confidence and composure gained from his three previous league outings.

“I’m the only head coach in the National League for sure with three first-choice goalkeepers,” Williams said of the decision that awaits him on Monday afternoon’s trip to north Wales.

“I’m very lucky, but I also have a big headache, but it’s really fantastic because who wouldn’t want to have three goalkeepers that play so well?”

The other two players missing from the action were defender Geraldo Bajrami and Ruben Rodrigues.

Rodrigues was forced to withdraw during the Magpies’ 2-0 win over Altrincham 10 days ago as the J. Davidson surface made play difficult and resulted in the Portuguese’s eventual elimination from the match.

But with the match against Phil Parkinson’s team fast approaching, Williams was on hand to detail what the pair’s involvement will be in three days’ time.

“Baj has played incredibly well, but we monitored the fatigue score, and his was pretty high, so I felt like in order for us to have the maximum for us to pick from, we need to take him off his duties today, but he trained before the game so we can monitor what you are doing and give you the right workload.

“And Ruben also trained this morning and trained brilliantly without any reaction, but we have to undergo a different type of training with him tomorrow to see that we can score everything if he arrives before Monday’s game.”

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