Alassana Jatta boost can’t overshadow bigger Notts County problem v Newport and Peterborough | OneFootball

Alassana Jatta returns from international duty on Saturday, but Notts must find more sources of goals.

Notts County are set to receive a huge boost ahead of their upcoming games against Newport County and Peterborough United in the form of Alassana Jatta returning from international duty.

The Gambian made his debut for his national team in their 2-1 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against the Comoros on Friday.

Without their talisman, Notts fell to their first defeat of the season away from home, going down 2-0 away at Crewe Alexandra, in a game that highlighted an ongoing issue for Stuart Maynard and his side.

Jatta has enjoyed a superb start to the League Two season in front of goal, as has his fellow striker David McGoldrick. However, aside from that pair, the Magpies are desperately lacking goals from elsewhere.

It's an issue that they must fix as soon as possible, with their FA Cup second round tie away at Peterborough United sandwiched between tricky tests against Newport County and the high-flying Walsall, representing another challenging week for the Magpies.

Notts must find greater depth to their goalscoring

Losing Jatta for the weekend was obviously a huge blow to Notts – losing the division’s joint third-highest goalscorer would have a big effect on any team.

But drawing a blank in Cheshire just served to highlight an issue that could continue to plague them all season if it isn’t addressed.

With Jatta on seven league goals and his counterpart McGoldrick on six, Notts aren’t really short of goals as such, but take those two out of the equation and there really isn’t a lot else in front of goal.

The Magpies have had just six different scorers in the league this season (Jatta, McGoldrick, Jones, Crowley, Platt, Robertson), only West Brom have had fewer in the entire Football League.

Saturday’s starting XI had just two league goals in it and both of those belonged to centre-back Matty Platt.

Notts’ horrible run of injuries is definitely worth considering – Jodi Jones has missed several weeks and is expected to be out until the new year. Dan Crowley has also been sidelined in recent weeks, and when the midfielder has been fit, he’s spent large parts of 2024/25 operating in a deeper role to cover injuries in the midfield.

Cedwyn Scott has struggled to regain the form that made him such a dangerous option in the National League and has had a period on the sidelines of late, while Jevani Brown’s loan move just isn’t working out so far.

However, even when Jones and Crowley return from their injuries, it’s unlikely Notts will be able to maintain a genuine promotion push, relying on just four players for almost all of their attacking output.

For context, last season’s three automatically promoted sides Stockport County, Wrexham and Mansfield Town had 20, 19 and 19 different goalscorers respectively. It simply isn’t enough to be relying on just a handful of players every week to provide your creativity and cutting edge.

If Jatta and McGoldrick continue their form across the remainder of the season, Maynard's side will likely have few issues in front of goal. However, if they lose one of them for any sustained period, goals could become a huge problem.

Although their defence has improved significantly this season, take out Jatta and McGoldrick’s efforts and Notts are seriously short of goals.

It’s a problem they desperately need to fix, as Jatta is likely to miss more games due to international call-ups, while McGoldrick simply can’t play every week at the age of 36.

And with Scott having operated as more of an attacking midfielder on the majority of occasions since he arrived from Gateshead in 2022, Notts don’t really have a third recognised striker at the club.

Goals could very easily become a problem if they were to lose either of their strikers for any prolonged period of time.

The early season success of Stoke loanee Nathan Lowe at Walsall has once again proved just how effective loan signings can be at this level, and another striker coming through the door could make a massive difference to Notts’ promotion hopes – even if it was just a youngster on loan until the end of the season.