The Magpies Story — Premier League Debut

Here we go folks, after a busy summertime transfer window my Notts County were ready to face the big boys, the Premier League season was about to begin! With quite a few new players in the squad we had compensate the lack of cohesion with determination and courage, we had to fight for every ball and get forward whenever possible. It’s quite clear that I won’t set my team to «park the bus», I never liked that, we will attack and try to score, that’s the football I like to see.

The first game was a special one, the Nottingham Derby! It must have been quite an event for the city to have both teams promoted to the Premier League at the end of the last season. I was happy about it too, we had to get revenge after being beaten by Forest at Meadow Lane last season… The game began perfectly for us, Guilherme proved his talent right away and gave us an early goal, our fans were ecstatic! We continued to play well until the break but missed a few good chances, Pekhart blew the best of them by hitting the post. Forest put us under pressure in the second half and we conceded the equalizer after a corner kick marking error. I wasn’t expecting that, the error was made by the most experienced player, Eric Abidal! The lads reacted well though and after missing another couple of chances Pekhart finally powered one it, victory was ours!

Everybody was extremely happy after the derby win but we had to get back to work right away, Liverpool were coming at Meadow Lane! We did beat them once a couple of years ago in the Carling Cup, it was a major upset back then because we were playing in League One. The challenge seemed difficult though, Liverpool finished 2nd last season in the Premier League. We played very well in the first half again but we had to face a fantastic keeper, Reina, he made some fabulous save. He couldn’t do anything about Sburlea‘s shot in the 18th minute though, the Romanian striker powered it in with great enthusiasm! We should have had a bigger advantage at the break but we had to settle for the one goal lead. Liverpool came out of the dressing room with great determination and dominated the second half. We defended pretty well but a free kick missile shot from Kuyt went in after bouncing off the crossbar… Szalai missed a huge chance right before the final whistle, his header hit the woodwork and bounced clear! The fans were pleased with our display though, I was satisfied too.

The last league game of the month was another very difficult one, away at Chelsea! They finished 4th last season and were looking to win the title, anything less than a win against us was out of the question. The first half was quite boring, an endless midfield battle with only a few attacking moments. We had a good chance to score but the woodwork saved Chelsea right before the break. The second half was a different story, Chelsea were all over us and we just couldn’t react. Our back was against the wall and we only managed to postpone the execution until the 70th minute. We were totally outplayed in the second half, we had to learn the lesson and carry on…

It is too early to draw any conclusions but I guess I can be satisfied with the results so far, we won the derby and got a point from Liverpool against the odds.

We had one more game to play before the end of the month, the second round of the Carling Cup. We had weaker opponents to face, League Two side Oxford. I didn’t expect to have any problems, Guilherme and Sburlea scored two easy goals in the first half and then Djourou scored his first goal for the club with a corner kick header. It was a solid display but we have to admit that the opponents were quite weak.

September will begin with supposedly easier games but I think those are the most difficult. We have to get the most points out of the games with the smaller teams in the league in order to climb up the table. The last game will be a big one, at home with mighty Arsenal…

That’s about it for now, over to you… What do you think about our start? Anyone willing to adjust their predictions after these results?

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