Notts County boss Luke Williams expects Chesterfield to 'disrupt' their 'flow' in National League play-off final

The Magpies won the game 2-1 but the Spireites gave a really strong account of themselves despite being down to 10-men.

“I was very unhappy with the performance on that day,” Williams said at his pre-match press conference this week. “If we want to be able to win this game we will have to play far better than that and I know we are capable of that. We have to play very, very well. We have to be completely tuned in for the entire game.”

Notts finished on 107 points, 23 more than Town, and they scored the most goals in the league with 107, but it still wasn’t enough to win the title as they were pipped by Wrexham.

Asked what he thinks the Blues’ approach to the game will be, Williams explained: “I don’t think anybody is comfortable with us in our flow so of course I am sure they are going to try and disrupt our flow and rhythm. We know that they are a brilliant team as well and we have try to not allow them to feel relaxed in the game at any point so I think it is two teams who have the capability to defend well against each other and attack ferociously against each other.”

A big attendance is expected, with the Spireites having currently sold just over 13,000 and County around 22,000.

“It is a local derby between two clubs that are in the wrong place at this moment in time,” Williams said. “They are two very well supported clubs so I think it is a brilliant occasion. I am sure this is the only country on the planet that you can have a game of this size in the fifth tier. The interest and passion for football in this country is remarkable.”

Williams, who has experienced defeat at Wembley when he was assistant manager at Swindon Town when they lost 4-0 to Preston in 2015, said leading Notts back to the EFL would be the ‘highlight of his career.’

“It was a steep learning curve for me,” Williams said. “There are one two things, in insight, that we could have done differently and I try to implement those things here. Whether they help us, I hope they do, but we will only know when we see the outcome of the game.”

In terms of the team news for Notts, Williams, speaking on Wednesday, said they just had a few tired bodies.

He added: “I am not concerned about anything for the game, but we are still nursing a few bodies. But they trained fully today and everyone came through it fine. We should be in a good place for our final preparations on Friday.”