Former Notts County striker Mark Stallard believes Luke Williams' side stand as good a chance as any of achieving promotion back to the EFL this season. Having suffered play-off semi final heartache last year, a strong pre-season may indeed hold the key to a fruitful campaign.
With Kyle Wootton and Cal Roberts both now departing for pastures new, reinforcements have been brought in through Macaulay Langstaff and Sam Austin. With just over a week to ago until the team's first game against Maidenhead United, York City will tomorrow provide the final pre-season test.
Stallard, who turned out over 200 times for the Magpies, has insisted returning to the Football League must be the key aim once again this season. With the bookmakers currently seeing Notts as second favourites, expectation is high in and around Meadow Lane at present.
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''It's absolutely where they should be,'' said the 47-year-old. ''They should be right up there looking to get promoted and too right it doesn't really matter where the bookies have them. I think the bookies base it on a lot of things considering Wexham's strong finish and all the money they have, they are probably rightly favourites but Notts are rightly not too far behind them, as they are looking to strengthen and go that little bit further this season.
"There is a fine line between the top clubs and they will all be pushing and plenty more teams that will be believing that they can take one of those two promotions places and maybe then have a go via the play-offs.
''I don't see it being too different from last season. The teams that get relegated get replaced with teams that come in on a high so there are always ones to watch. Gateshead, Dorking and the others you know are going to come in with confidence and its all about how they adapt, how they step up, the same can be said about the players and how they make the step up.
''How a team can make that transition and likewise for all the other teams they will look to strengthen and there will be a usual rotation of players, some that make more changes than others but in terms of competitiveness and the nature of the automatic places makes a it really competitive league, hopefully that's where Notts will be aiming to be. Its all about who can get those wins and get the points on the board and not have too many blips throughout the season.
''I'm always optimistic heading into the start of the season, they have to be finishing or looking to finish in that number one spot and you would imagine anyone that finishes above Wrexham this season will be there or thereabouts. But you look at pats history and it takes 25+ wins to give yourself a fighting chance to get up there.
''Last season Stockport won 30 games and had a great run after a not so good start to the season after they changed their manager. Each year you look at what's gone before it and use that as a benchmark, that's where we have to aspire to be, and there is no reason why Notts can't be there but it is very difficult as there are a lot of clubs up there that will fancy beating Notts to it and take the mantle of being champions.''
