Notts County head coach Ian Burchnall revealed that some of his players were so ill they were vomiting at half-time as they were beaten 3-0 at National League leaders Stockport County.
Two goals from Paddy Madden and another from Ollie Crankshaw gave the Hatters victory and increased their lead at the top to seven points. The result ensured Notts’ winless run in all competitions extended to five games as they remain outside the play-off zone.
Notts went into the match ravaged by illness and injury, and after Jayden Richardson missed two glorious first-half chances they ran out of steam and were never in the game. Burchnall praised Stockport for an excellent display and refused to criticise his players, saying they played through the pain barrier.
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“More than 50 per cent of the squad should not have played the game for health reasons and some of them were vomiting at half-time,” he said. “We were discussing yesterday about recalling Lewis Knight and Tyreace Palmer, and playing Michael Doyle. We even talked about playing Kyle Wootton at centre-half as Connell Rawlinson and Alex Lacey were extremely unwell.
“I knew it could go like this tonight because I saw the state of training yesterday, and how the players were today. It’s disappointing because we came to such a good team but the players were not in a good state to play.
"We were miles off it and there were many reasons for that.” Notts face another tough trip to Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday, and Burchnall added: “We hope to be in better shape by then.”
Reflecting on the game, he said: “We missed an open goal in the first half which may have given us something to hang on to but we knew we were going to suffer in the second half and we did. I was very disappointed with their second goal just after half-time. It came from a long ball from their keeper and we just switched off.”
On-loan goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros made a string of fine saves as the Hatters threatened to run riot. Burchnall said: “He kept us in it for large parts.”
Burchnall learned yesterday he will be without Jaros and striker Kairo Mitchell for next week’s home league games against Boreham Wood and Chesterfield after both were called up for international duty. Jaros will join the Czech Under 21 squad for their Euro qualifiers against Albania and Andorra, while Mitchell will travel to Grenada’s European camp hoping to add to his 12 senior caps with appearances against Andorra and Gibraltar. The duo follow Richard Brindley and Cal Roberts on to the international stage after they were included in the England C squad to face Wales later this month.
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