Notts County may look at MK Dons with frustration at timing of Swansea City raid: View | OneFootball

It must be hard for Notts County fans to believe how well their season started on their return to the EFL, with the Magpies now in free fall into the lower reaches of the League Two table.

The feeling was buoyant at Meadow Lane as County started their first season back in the Football League after five campaigns in the fifth tier of the football pyramid, but that mood wasn’t to last for long.

Everybody at the club would have recognised that Luke Williams was hot property, and it wasn’t long before clubs higher up the divisions took notice of what a stellar job he was doing with one of the world’s oldest football clubs.

It was Swansea City who eventually got hold of their man at the start of 2024 following the Welsh side’s decision to get rid of Michael Duff, and things have never quite been the same on the banks of the River Trent ever since.

Notts County 23/24 League Two season

full-time managerial role, but with just one win since his arrival at the start of the year this County side look a shadow of their former selves at the moment.

County fans must be casting a jealous eye towards the top of the League Two ladder, with another side poaching a hotly-tipped manager from non-league and immediately reaping the rewards.

MK Dons acted quickly at the start of the season to part ways with Graham Alexander, with the former Bradford City manager being shown the door by mid-October after picking up just four victories from their first 13 matches.

Ever since their formation, the Dons have attempted to try to play a passing style of football, and there was one key candidate that stood out from the division below who was getting big results playing that way: Mike Williamson.

The former Newcastle United player [pictured above] had been pulling up trees with Gateshead in the National League, with promotion to the top tier of non-league football coming in 2022 before transforming The Heed into promotion contenders in the early stages of the season.

Mike Williamson kickstarts MK Dons League Two promotion challenge

His determination to play football on the floor, and in turn creating ample goalscoring opportunities for his strikers has given MK an immediate return on their investment in Williamson; with a race for automatic promotion still on the cards as the season draws to a close.

The Buckinghamshire side sit in fourth spot in the League Two table as it stands, level with third-placed Wrexham, although the Red Dragons have a game in hand at their disposal.

With Stockport County’s form deserting them at the wrong time, the Hatters have been drawn back into the race for the top three after topping the table for most of the season, with a run of just one win in seven league games seen them just a point ahead in second with two extra games to play.

At the time when the Dons were look like also-rans in the current campaign Notts were flying high with County and now-leaders Mansfield Town at the top of the table, and even when Williams left they were right in the mix for the playoffs.

But as is so often the case in football, one club’s decision can effect so many more, and Swansea’s decision to give Duff the axe at such a crucial time in the season has contributed to Notts’ demise.

An inability to keep opponents at bay coinciding with regular goal contributors Macaulay Langstaff and Jodi Jones losing their touch in front of goal have all contributed to Notts' form dropping off a cliff, with a recent 4-3 defeat to bottom side Sutton United epitomising their struggles of late.

Williamson would no doubt have been in the running for the job at Meadow Lane had he still been available, and they will see exactly what they missed out on when he brings his promotion-chasing side to Nottinghamshire on Easter Monday.