Luke Williams said Macaulay Langstaff is “adored” at Notts County after League Two’s leading scorer hit a first-half hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Morecambe.
The Magpies have bounced back from a four-match losing run by scoring eight goals without reply in wins over Doncaster and the Shrimps since Christmas, Langstaff with four of them.
And Williams said: “He is adored because imagine you are playing, and you are desperate to win, and you look around and you see Macca and you think ‘well, we definitely have a chance to win because Macca’s going to score’.
“But then if that guy is going to run for team, like he kills himself every week – running, tackling and now playing in three different positions like he has played there his whole career – and then you spend time with him and he is just the best guy as well, he is a really special guy.”
Despite the triumph, Williams was complimentary of the opposition.
“I think they are a good team,” he said. “I know that can sound unfair to say that after the 5-0 but they are, because we have played there before and they should have won the game in the last moments.
“We knew that they were a good team but we performed well and made it very difficult for them to show their qualities.”
Morecambe boss Ged Brennan was equally complimentary of County.
“You have to give them credit, they were outstanding today,” he said.
“We were not at our best and they were at their best but if you are playing against a team with a budget like they have got, whilst we have one of the smallest, it is going to show and that is what it looked like tonight.
“We will go again on Monday, and we will fight for every point from now on and we will try to do the best that we can.
“They had quality all over the pitch tonight. The lad who scored the hat-trick, his movement was absolutely unbelievable and never had to even break sweat tonight. He got three goals but could have got four or five.
“As I say, when you have a lot of quality like that, you are going to get a lot of goals aren’t you?”
Up next for County is a trip to Tranmere on New Year’s Day, where a win could move them within a point of the automatic promotion places. Morecambe will seek a swift response and a return to winning ways against Harrogate.
Cabal becomes second Juventus defender to suffer ACL injury
Juventus' Juan Cabal will undergo surgery after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in his left knee, intensifying the Serie A giants' defensive injury crisis.
The 23-year-old was forced to return to Turin after injuring his knee during training with the Colombia national team ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Ecuador.
Cabal is the second Juventus defender to suffer an ACL injury this season after Gleison Bremer, who hurt his left knee during their 3-2 Champions League win over RB Leipzig last month.
Cabal has so far made nine appearances across all competitions this season.
Juventus are sixth in the Serie A standings and 11th in the Champions League's new-look league phase.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
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