Notts County boss Neal Ardley thought he had been “helped by lockdown” as he celebrated his second anniversary at the helm ahead of the visit of Wealdstone tomorrow night.
The game will be Ardley’s first since becoming County’s longest-serving manager, going past Sam Allardyce in the 1990’s.
Speaking in the pre-match press conference this lunchtime, he said that his favourite memories included the 1-0 victory over arch-rivals Mansfield in February 2019.
However, Ardley said that whilst he was happy to reach the milestone, he hadn’t expected to be at the club for so long:
“When I didn’t manage to do what I was brought in to do, to keep us in League 2, I thought that would be it.
“The average for managers is something like 11 months – it’s one of those jobs – but ’m really thankful and proud that I’m here.
“You’re only ever six or seven games away from the end of a tenure, but you need to put that stuff at the back of your mind and act like you’re going to be at the club or five to ten years.”
The visit of newly-promoted Wealdstone will be County’s first home game in over a month.
The Stones sit fourth in the table after an impressive start to their first National League season in over 30 years.
But while Ardley was quick to praise tomorrow’s opponents, he remained confident that his team could get a positive result. He said:
“They are a really good team; I’ve been really impressed.
“I think all four teams that have come up from the [National League] North and South play impressive football; they play out from the back, try to make the pitch big and expansive and you can see with Wealdstone that they’re very brave.
“But because they’re brave, they’ll get caught every now and then at the other end, so we have to be very respectful of what they can do to hurt us but also have confidence in our ability to hurt them,” he said.
County currently sit 12th in the table after a dramatic 3-2 victory at local rivals Chesterfield last Saturday, with a game in hand on the three teams above them.
But tomorrow’s fixture represents the first of five matches in the space of two weeks for the Magpies, after just three in November thus far.
Despite acknowledging the demands that will be placed on his squad, Ardley said that all of the players would be needed to get results from a busy start to December. He said:
“It’s not easy, I’d be more confident if the season had been longer.
“But we have to play the football we want to play, whilst also having a bit of robustness and substance about us in our performances that says.”
“The most important thing at the moment is trying to get some of the players that have been injured or ill back so that the squad can cope with the demands.”
Joining Ardley at the press conference was summer signing Ruben Rodrigues.
The midfielder, who moved to the East Midlands from Dutch outfit FC Den Bosch, scored the equaliser and assisted the winner in County’s last-gasp win at the weekend.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s clash, the Portuguese said the victory provided a welcome boost ahead of the Christmas period.
He said: “Everyone’s feeling great, it was a good win after a disappointing draw on Tuesday [vs. Halifax Town].
“We worked hard and still believed that we could get something.
“We have to believe and that game shows that even if we are not playing well or behind, we still have the quality to change the game quickly so it’s good for future games.”
The 24-year-old’s comments came shortly after it was announced Nottingham and Nottinghamshire had been placed in the highest tier of coronavirus restrictions.
It means County’s home games will continue to be played behind closed doors for the foreseeable future, despite the prospect of some away matches having up to 2,000 fans in attendance after the national lockdown ends next week.
But Rodrigues has said he remains excited at the prospect of once again playing in front of fans at Meadow Lane, which hasn’t hosted a game with fans in attendance since March 14.
He added: “It’s very unfortunate, I’ve never played in a stadium with that many people but it’s more unfortunate that the fans can’t live in the moment with us.
“I’ve seen some footage from last year and I just want to be there now.
“I can’t wait.”
By Callum Parke