Notts County boss Luke Williams has been taking a look at a couple of trial players as he continues to build his squad for the 2022-23 National League campaign.
Bristol City midfielder James Morton and Wolves goalkeeper Jackson Smith both featured as the Magpies won 5-1 at Basford United in their first pre-season friendly. They played 45 minutes each as new head coach Williams fielded different XIs in each half.
Morton played under Williams during his time as under-23 coach at Ashton Gate. He has been at City since he was 14 and has previously had loan spells at Forest Green Rovers, Grimsby Town and Gillingham. The 23-year-old is entering the final 12 months of his current contract and has not been part of Nigel Pearson's first-team plans.
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Smith signed a new two-year contract at Molineux last month, having returned from a loan spell at Kettering Town, where he kept 12 clean sheets in 31 appearances for the National League North side. The 20-year-old has been at Wolves for 13 years and has previously spent time on loan at Frickley Athletic.
Williams revealed he was looking at the keeper with a view to sending young Magpies stopper Tiernan Brooks out on loan. He has previously had a spell with Worksop Town.
"We think that there's a possible loan in the future there (for Brooks) and we need to try to look at somebody who may be coming into our squad on a permanent basis, potentially," he told the club's official website. "That's the idea. We know how good he is, and we need now to see him really challenged at first-team level."
On Morton, Williams added: "I know James well (from Bristol City) and he showed some of his quality (against Basford), for sure. We need to try to see if there's an opportunity to bring him into the squad."
Summer signing Aden Baldwin was absent from the Basford match as a precaution measure. The defender recently joined Notts after being released by MK Dons.
"Aden is very sore after not playing too much football," said Williams. "He came in and has done a lot of work in a short space of time. It was just a precaution, that we didn't put him at risk, and he's going to be ready to train for the rest of the week."
Notts went behind to Anthony Dwyer's 14th-minute opener at Greenwich Avenue but responded through Ruben Rodrigues and an own goal. New signings Macaulay Langstaff and Cedwyn Scott were also on target, along with Kyle Cameron.
Reflecting on the match, Williams said: "Shaky start. Disappointed we conceded from the first attempt from the opposition - but it was good overall. I was pleased to see the boys score some goals, some good stuff we've worked on in training, and a lot of stuff we need to sort out.
"There were some saves (to deny Notts) but also some really good chances created by Basford as well, so we have to give them respect for that, but also we need to recognise there were too many slack moments where we switched off.
"We take a lot (from it). I think now is a good opportunity for us to review the game back and see some of the things that players are particularly good at, and some of the areas where we need to improve.
"You can train as much as you want but until you actually see the guys in a game, it's impossible really to tell certain things."
He added: "A lot of the players were in the correct positions but a lot of players were also trying to fill in gaps that were missing. The important thing was to get everybody 45 minutes of 11 v 11 football, competitive football, so there were one or two players that were slightly out of position but certain things are fundamental that you have to do regardless of position and for the most part they did that."
Notts are back in action on Saturday, when they play a behind-closed-doors friendly fixture at Leicester City.
First half XI: Slocombe; Chicksen, Rawlinson, Brindley; Taylor, Adebayo-Rowling; Morton (trialist), Palmer, Austin, Rodrigues; Mitchell.
Second half XI: Smith (trialist); Cameron, Francis, Bajrami; Munakandafa, Nemane; Vincent, O'Brien, Roberts; Scott, Langstaff.
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