By Callum Wright
Notts County head coach Stuart Maynard has praised the mentality and standard of his team despite their ‘terrible’ luck with injuries throughout the season.
The Magpies will travel away to face Crewe Alexandra on Saturday, November 16 in yet another test against a top-six team.
County sit in the automatic promotion places following their draw away at Doncaster Rovers the week prior, while Crewe sit just two places – and two points – below in fifth.
Maynard has continued to deal with absences in his squad, with top scorer Alassana Jatta unavailable following his call-up to the Gambian national team and Dan Crowley a doubt through a groin issue.
Speaking ahead of the game, the head coach said: “If you look at our injury list this season, it’s been terrible and we’ve been very unfortunate, you could say we’ve been light in other positions [than just up front].
“Ninety-nine per cent of our injuries have been impact injuries and it’s been a real frustration.”
On the number of games they’re playing in quick succession, he added: “When you’re picking up injuries, you’re always going to moan there’s too many games.
“When you’re winning games of football and you have no injuries, you’re going to want to play as many times as you can because momentum is a powerful thing in football.
“It’ll always be when you start losing games of football you’ll start saying your injuries are too high and there’s not enough recovery time, it’s a vicious cycle within football.
“At times I think it is frustrating that there’s a lot of cup competitions that can affect the league campaign and it can hinder you, so I think that’s why you do see a lot of rotation within cup competitions and that’s not being disrespectful to any competition because every game that we go into we want to win.”
Despite having so many absences in the squad, Maynard says the mood and mentality is still doing well.
“It’s really good [the mood], when you look at this season – the way that we’ve started and the way we’ve performed – we’ve performed to a high level, even the games that we’ve lost,” he said.
“The standards have been set right the minute from pre season, and the lads have kept that as high as it is and you look at it in the performances, especially some of the late goals, we keep going all the way to the end and I believe that we’ve got a real mentality within the group now.”
He added that fellow forwards David McGoldrick and Cedwyn Scott, the latter of whom returned in midweek after a period of mental health leave, are in contention for the game.
The teams go into the fixture with opposites attracting, with County still only one of three teams in the EFL to be unbeaten away from home, while Crewe haven’t lost at home since conceding five without return against Chesterfield in August.
Talking about the Magpies’ opponents, Maynard said: “They’re a really good team, they’re up there for a reason, the two front lads are a real handful and can cause anyone problems on their day.
“We know it’s going to be a really tough test but we’re really looking forward to it.”
The game kicks off at 3pm at Crewe’s Mornflake Stadium this Saturday.
