Neal Ardley says Notts County need to improve fast

Posted Sunday, January 13, 2019 by PA

An exasperated Neal Ardley warned his Notts County players that their fate will soon be sealed if they don’t improve quickly after they lost 1-0 at home to Cambridge.

The Magpies, who are now six points adrift of safety, bossed large parts of the match in front of their biggest home crowd of the season but 15,000 fans went home unhappy after Greg Taylor’s looping header settled it.

Cambridge, struggling themselves this season, are now five points clear of the League Two drop zone and County’s fate is looking increasingly grim.

But Ardley still sees positive signs from their play, even if they collapse at key moments.

“I told the players that I and everybody else needs more from them,” he said.

“There was nothing in the game, but it was the same old, same old. We had a go to a point although I thought in the first half we were a bit nervy with our passing.

“In the second half we were by far the better team, but we lacked quality and we’ve lost the game on a set-piece.

“People have got to do their jobs at set-pieces, but somebody gets bullied at the back post and we’ve lost the game to it.

“When you are in the position we are, you have to be brilliant in both boxes and it’s cost us.

“We work hard on set-pieces, but there is one common denominator in the players we have here keep allowing it to happen.

“They’ve hardly had a chance. The keeper has made one great save from 25 yards, but other than that I thought we competed well between the boxes and defended well.”

Cambridge have now won three of their last five league games and manager Colin Calderwood expects them to pull further away from danger – even if they did ride their luck at Meadow Lane.

“I said to the players they showed terrific grit and determination. They showed application to get the element of luck once or twice,” he said.

“They have worked hard all season and they really grappled for the game in the second half.

“But there were a lot of moments when we could have done better and that will help us win games in a more comfortable manner moving forwards.

“We got the break by scoring from a set-play which, in a game of this magnitude, you don’t want one going against you.

“We had a little bit of a threat in the first half without really producing enough efforts given there were a lot of crosses and we got into some good areas.

“We didn’t have players in the right areas, but the one we scored from was a great header.”