Tranmere travel to Meadow Lane to face Notts County this Saturday in their fifth match of the League Two season. The two sides have had different starts to the season, with the visitors closer to the bottom and looking for the three points, whereas Notts County already have a couple points on the board.
Notts County currently sit ninth in League Two with seven points to their name. The Magpies have two wins, one draw and one loss in four games, but they do have the worst goal difference of those on seven points with a negative one goal difference having conceded eight goals.
The Magpies had a rough start to the season with their opening weekend loss to Sutton United. Sutton scored early with Joseph Kizzi but the game went downhill when Aidan Stone was shown a red card in the 15th minute. David McGoldrick did manage to grab Notts County’s first goal of the season but it was merely a consolation goal as Sutton United thrashed them 5 - 1. The Magpies did get their first win of the season in their first home game against Grimsby Town. John Bostock, Jodi Jones and Daniel Crowley gave Notts County the 3 - 2 win. The one draw came in a 0 - 0 draw against Morecambe where Notts County dominated the game.
The most recent outing came away at Doncaster. Macaulay Langstaff scored twice, along with a goal from Jodi Jones to give Notts County the 3 - 1 win as Deji Sotona bagged a late goal in the 95th minute for Doncaster.
Tranmere sit ten places below Notts County in 19th place. Tranmere have managed just three points in four games, with one win and three losses. They sit top of the batch of four teams on three points with a goal difference of zero after scoring and conceding seven goals.
Tranmere’s first game of the season wasn’t the opener they’d hoped for when they hosted Barrow. The visitors won 2 - 1 with goals from Niall Canavan and Kian Spence for Barrow and a penalty converted by Joshua Stuart Hawkes for Tranmere. This was then compounded by the 1 - 0 loss to MK Dons in their first away game, where a goal from Mohamed Eisa gave them all three points. However, Tranmere’s first win of the season came against Harrogate. Luke Norris, Sam Taylor and Kieron Morris all scored in Tranmere’s 3 - 0 win over Harrogate.
Tranmere most recently hosted Salford City in a seven goal thriller. Connor Jennings, Kristian Dennis and Charlie Jolley all scored but it was not enough as a goal from Matt Smith and a hattrick from Callum Hendry gave Salford the 4 - 3 win.
Notts County and Tranmere have met 45 times so far in their histories, with the two sides being separated by just one win. Tranmere have the marginal lead in the advantage, having won 19 times in comparison to Notts County’s 18 wins. A draw is not as common, only happening eight times and the last draw coming back in 2013.