While Macaulay Langstaff, Ruben Rodrigues, and Cedwyn Scott received much of the plaudits following their performances against Maidstone on Friday evening, boss Luke Williams identified his midfield pairing of Geraldo Bajrami and Matty Palmer as key to Notts County remaining top of the National League table.
It was a brilliant weekend for the Magpies, seeing the sides below them drop points whilst opening up a three-point gap at the summit of the table after 14 games of the season.
In what was a comfortable performance under the lights at Meadow Lane, the Notts boss was keen to highlight the performance of the two central midfielders, explaining that they gave his side a platform to go and score the goals their possession merited.
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In the absence of Jim O'Brien, the onus on that area of the pitch has heightened, and both Bajrami and Palmer have excelled during the 35-year-old's time away from National League action.
And speaking ahead of the Magpies' trip to Wealdstone on Tuesday evening, Williams highlighted the pair's recovery actions during their fixture with the Stones, labelling Bajrami a "destroyer" and stating that no one else in the league can distribute the ball like Palmer.
"Both players gave us a platform," explained Williams. "They gave a platform for the attacking players to go and have plenty of moments, and that is what they want, they want balls to be across the box a lot.
"They want to try and be able to play together, combine around the box like Macaulay and Ruben did for the second goal, and they can only do that with a really good platform, discipline.
"Bajrami is a real destroyer and he stops the opposition from being able to get a grip of the game.
"Matty distributes the ball like no one else in the division in my opinion, so these two guys together without Jim, certainly Friday night, both of them had that really good combination of being able to recover the ball quickly and setting the guys up to play."
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