Notts County Story – March 2014

Steven Defour was suspended for the second leg after reaching the yellow cards limit but Sam Hinshelwood was back on the pitch after his injury. We also had some good news from the Premier League just before the game, Manchester United dropped a couple of points again after drawing 1-1 with Aston Villa. Our match was off to a nightmare start though, we were dominating the game but Zarate got away again on a counter attack and finished with a placed shot. Things were not looking good but the team tried to react. We managed to get quite a few shots on target until half time but Lazio have a good keeper too, Uruguayan Fernando Muslera… It was half time already and we were 3-1 down on aggregate, we needed to score. And the ball went in eventually, a free kick from the right flank sent the ball into the six yards box, the keeper parried three consecutive shots before the ball arrived in front of centre back Havard Nordtveit, he powered it in! It was his first goal of the season and that surely gave a lift to everybody in the team. Three minutes later striker Demba Ba, employed as a left winger in that match, blasted in one of his trademark powerful shots from 20 yards out, it went in off the post and we were level on aggregate! Lazio were shocked as we kept on pushing forward. Rafael Sobis extended our lead a few minutes later with a fine shot from the edge of the area, it was an epic comeback. But the team just wouldn’t stop, Tinga set up Guilherme with a through ball and the Brazilian striker scored his 50th goal for the club! Sobis scored another one on a counter attack two minutes from time, it was probably the best second half I’ve ever seen this season.

We were through to the quarter finals and the draw pitched us against strong French side Olympique Marseille. If we’ll manage to get past them we’ll get to meet either CSKA Moscow or Stuttgart in the semi finals while Arsenal have a good chance of getting to the final on the bottom side of the draw.

Back to the Premier League for the last game of the month, at home with 18th placed Burnley. We defeated them 3-1 away from home in November and it was quite clear that we needed a win again. Rafael Sobis was in great shape and he gave us the early lead, we were in control. We created quite a few chances to score but that didn’t happen until the second half, Sobis scored his second by intercepting a parried shot from Guilherme. We could have scored a lot more but I guess two goals and three points are more than enough. The best news came after the game, Manchester United lost 2-0 away at Reading!

Normally we should have played another game by the end of March but it was re arranged due to international call ups. Manchester United got back on track in their last game of the month, they won 4-0 at home with Hull City. We were still top of the table, three points clear with two games in hand.

Rafael Sobis was deservedly picked as Player of the Month, he scored four times in three games!

You could say that three points clear with two games in hand seems like a pretty good chance of winning the title. Well, take a look at next month’s fixtures, we’ll have nine games to play while Manchester United will have only four as they are out of all the cup competitions. And I think that if we’ll manage to get past Marseille we’ll have two more games to play, it will be a massacre. If you look at the opponents it gets even worse, we’ll have the Nottingham Derby (twice!) and then a tough three games stretch with Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea!

Well, I guess we’ll have to live through April but it will be extremely difficult. I think that we have a chance of winning the title but only if Manchester United will drop a few points in their four games, otherwise it will be very unlikely. What do you think?

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