Luke Williams gave an honest account of his Notts County side’s 5-1 friendly defeat to Stoke City at Meadow Lane, citing defensive errors as his main frustration with the performance.
Tyrese Campbell netted a hat-trick for the visitors, who took a three-goal lead inside the first 40 minutes before Macauley Langstaff scored his second goal in as many games to pull one back, but the three-goal lead was restored before half-time with Campbell’s third.
After their opening pre-season victory against Nuneaton Town in midweek, this latest result made it clear to the County boss what needs to be addressed as they continue their preparations for the new campaign.
“We got thoroughly beaten by a team that were miles better than us,” admitted Williams. “We gifted them goals as well. You can get beat even if you play well because they had too much for us, but if you gift them good opportunities you’re going to get handsomely beaten.
“It’s given us a chance to show the players that, you might be able to get away with certain things against Nuneaton, but you certainly won’t get away with those things against players of this quality.
“If I wanted to win all the pre-season games, I certainly wouldn't line up Stoke and Nottingham Forest, but we’ve done it so the players can realise that if you want to play at a high level, then you have to cut out the mistakes and if you create chances you have to score.”
With it being pre-season the results do not carry as much meaning, but the principles that Williams wants to instil in his team still apply to these games and he hopes this latest experience will be an eye-opener for his players.
He added: “What you doing going forward is pointless is you can’t defend, it’s good to see us be aggressive going forward and create chances but I’m more obsessed with us being more difficult to play against.
“We expect to get beat against these level of teams, but not that heavily with how soft some of the goals were. The coordination of the backline was poor, the opposition challenge you so much because they have the quality and pace up top, so if you don’t put pressure on the ball they’ll pick you apart.
“We’ll look through the costly defensive actions because we’re going up a level so we have to improve and getting away with it sometimes is not good because they need to be highlighted.”
