Notts County must have Cal Roberts regrets | OneFootball

Cal Roberts starred for Notts, but had his Meadow Lane spell ravaged by injuries.

Notts County will have regrets about how their January 2020 deal to sign National League North star Cal Roberts played out.

Roberts made the move to Nottingham after starring for NLN side Blyth Spartans in the first half of the 2019/20 season, netting 17 goals from the wing before the end of January.

Roberts was an instant hit at Meadow Lane and became a star at Notts. He was one of non-league’s finest talents and looked destined to move on to big things in the future.

However, Roberts’ time at Meadow Lane was marred by a lengthy injury lay-off that hampered his progress, ultimately resulting in the tricky winger being sold to Aberdeen at the start of Notts’ promotion winning 2022/23 campaign.

Notts will look back with regret on his time with the club and wonder what could’ve been had Roberts stayed injury free.

Roberts’ potential looked sky-high at Notts

When Roberts moved to Nottingham in 2020, it represented the start of his promising young career getting back on track.

He’d been released by boyhood club Newcastle in the summer of 2019, having featured and scored for them in the FA Cup. Somehow, Roberts had to drop down to the sixth tier to find a club, joining Blyth initially on a non-contract basis.

His electric form soon saw Spartans tie him down to a contract and when he joined Notts for an undisclosed fee that January, he had an unbelievable 17 goals to his name from 25 games.

Roberts hit the ground running at Meadow Lane and immediately became one of Notts’ key players. He produced a mazy dribble to score his first goal for the club in March’s stunning 2-0 victory away at table-topping Barrow, before following that up with goals in the wins against Aldershot Town and Eastleigh in the next two games.

Neal Ardley’s side were on a run of four successive wins and handily placed in third, when the National League season was curtailed by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Roberts starred in Notts’ subsequent play-off campaign, which was played behind closed doors in July and August, netting a near carbon copy of his Barrow wondergoal to send the Magpies to Wembley.

He also netted a free-kick in the final as Ardley’s men fell to a bitter defeat at the hands of Harrogate Town.

After a stunning first few months at Meadow Lane, Roberts looked ready to kick-on. However, in mid-September, he was stretched off during a bizarre re-arranged FA Trophy semi-final against Harrogate (who by then were a Football League side).

It marked the start of a torrid period of injuries for the Geordie, who featured just nine times for Notts all season.

His injuries were notably hard for the medical department to pin down, with Roberts experiencing several muscular return issues in his groin and hip.

He had surgery in December 2020 in order to strengthen his stomach lining, with the club believing he was suffering from the effects of long-Covid, which in turn was causing his recovery to continually break down.

He returned in the away defeat to Hartlepool United in April 2021, but lasted only a matter of minutes before he limped off.

That setback proved to be the dagger through the heart of his season, with scans later indicating a damaged hip flexor.

Nevertheless, Roberts was back to his best the following campaign. He notched 16 goals and six assists from just 36 National League games in 2021/22, forming a deadly partnership with Ruben Rodrigues and Kyle Wootton (now of Oxford and Stockport respectively).

The Magpies again fell in the play-offs once again though and Roberts was sold to Aberdeen for an undisclosed fee in July 2022, ahead of his contract expiring the following summer.

Roberts’ promising career has faded away a little

It’s extremely hard not to think about where Roberts’ career could have taken had he been able to stay injury free.

The former England Under 20 international continued to struggle north of the border, making just four appearances all season for Aberdeen in 2022/23 before moving back to the NLN with Scunthorpe United.

He also spent large periods of time on the sidelines last season, making just eight league appearances for the Iron and scoring two goals.

Roberts has been back to his best this campaign and is already in double figures for goals. Now 27, he still has time to work his way into the Football League, but it must be hard for both him and his clubs not to look back with regret.

An incredibly gifted footballer, both Notts and Roberts will surely look back at his time at Meadow Lane with happiness, even if there is a tinge of disappointment.

He was a huge favourite at Meadow Lane and a man who had fans on the edge of their seats every time he got on the ball. Notts will surely wonder whether their eventual promotion back to the Football League would have come sooner if he’d stayed fit.