Notts County’s Stuart Maynard hails David McGoldrick’s ‘Premier League finishes’

Stuart Maynard hailed David McGoldrick’s goals as “Premier League finishes” after the forward netted twice again in Notts County’s 2-0 win over Accrington.

McGoldrick’s brace, which made it four goals in two games for the striker, ensured Notts County’s unbeaten start to the new league season continued.

McGoldrick’s first was identical to his first last week at Swindon; the opposition afforded the forward far too much space on the edge of the box, leaving McGoldrick with the freedom of the stadium to pick out the far top corner.

The second did not quite reach the same heights as the first, with a low, deflected strike from the edge of the box again evading a diving Michael Kelly and entering the back of the net for his second, County’s second and the final goal of the game.

County boss Maynard could not hide his delight at full-time, with his side emphatically extending their unbeaten start to the new league campaign.

He said: “Yeah, look, I am delighted with the clean sheet firstly. I feel that we have deserved more clean sheets this season with the way we have defended right from the front. It was a really, really pleasing performance.

“I think this summer we have built a squad that when players are suspended or out injured, we need to make sure that we have that same level coming in. Jodi Jones and Dan Crowley have been incredible, and they will continue to be, and we are very lucky to have them, but we have a squad here and we have said the starting XI will not win us promotion, it’s the squad and today’s win showed that.”

Maynard has been delighted with the impact Irishman McGoldrick has made.

He added: “That is his third Premier League finish in two games, and I am delighted for Didzy (McGoldrick). He looks after himself off the pitch and the example that he sets around the place for the younger players aspiring to play at the top level, the likes of George (Abbott) who made his home debut this afternoon…he is an incredible asset for this football club, and we are very lucky to have him with us.”

Accrington boss John Doolan was left disappointed that the run without a win for his side continued, as he said: “We’re desperate to put that right but when you come to a stadium like this against a team like Notts County with aspirations of automatic promotion, and give McGoldrick that space and you step off him, we did our homework on him, and he did the same last week against Swindon, so it was disappointing to see the first go in.

“We knew they would have a lot of the ball; they always do, and we worked on it. Our problem at times was handling the ball, we need to be better than that, we need to be better on the ball. We do 11v11s, they have shown time and time again that they can do it.”