Ricardo Moniz calls on Notts County to have confidence away from Meadow Lane

MIDLANDS Regional Alliance round-up.MIDLANDS Regional Alliance round-up.
MIDLANDS Regional Alliance round-up.
Notts County boss Ricardo Moniz says his side must believe in themselves when they hit the road.

Improving Notts have won their last two matches against Crawley and York City at Meadow Lane to leave them sitting 13th in the League Two table.

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But County have struggled on the road so far and Moniz knows that needs solving if they are to seal a return to League One at the first time of asking.

“Our away record is all to do with mentality. You have to have confidence in the style and say ‘we are Notts County, we decide what happens,” said Moniz.

“When it was 1-0 against Oxford we should have closed the gate. Against Gillingham last season when it was 1-0, we should have closed the gate.

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“It’s a lack of leadership in defence. We have to walk away from the box rather than to it.

“We want to keep the 1-0. If you don’t have the finishing qualities and the hunger to penetrate non-stop, and sprint into gaps, then that is a mentality you must develop.

“Against Crawley we had it and it is getting better. I prefer we have scorers regularly from different positions, but we are walking on that.

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“If we do that and have defensive consistency, then nobody can stop us.

“Attack is the best defence. Stay out of the box and run forward. Defend the ball not the position.

“We have to change it or otherwise we will stay a team without a face.

“I hate it when you have no style.

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“We have leaders in Alan Smith and Roy Carroll for example and you hope that it inspires the younger generation.”

Notts travel to a struggling Dagenham side who have yet to win a home match this season tonight.

And Moniz knows his side must get all three points to keep up their momentum and climb up the table.

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He added: “I can imagine people are very sceptical about our away form. We take lots of fans to the away games and you are ashamed. We must die for the club. We must block the crosses, we must throw our whole body to block the cross.

“We are making steps in the right direction.

“League Two is very strong.

“You never know. At Red Bull, for example, we lost seven games one after the other. But suddenly something happened and we won every game from November.

“Sometimes the coaches hope rather than know. I didn’t know that Campbell would play from the beginning. I didn’t know that Noble would play better than last year.

“The only thing I can do is give them provocation to improve and become better players.“