Notts County reaction given as Barnsley eye Martin Paterson - 'Difficult to say' | OneFootball

Notts County boss Martin Paterson is expected to focus on the job at hand amid links to Barnsley.

Notts County head into the final couple of matches in League Two sitting just outside of the top three and the automatic promotion spots.

Bromley have sealed promotion and Milton Keynes Dons are expected to join them, but below that remains a scrap with Cambridge United in third on 78 points, Salford City on 77, Notts a further point behind that – and then the likes of Swindon Town and Grimsby Town in the hunt, with Chesterfield not yet, remarkably, mathematically out of the equation.

It has been an impressive season for the Magpies after they lost their play-off semi-final to AFC Wimbledon last year under the management of Stuart Maynard.

In just his second managerial role, former Northern Ireland international attacker Martin Paterson has done an excellent job at Meadow Lane – and one that has seen him now be linked with League One side Barnsley.

Martin Paterson expected to focus on Notts County

Notts County head to Essex to face Colchester United this weekend before finishing their campaign with the visit of an improved Bristol Rovers on the final day in Nottingham.

The play-offs beckon even if County fail to overhaul the likes of Cambridge and Salford in those games and, despite those links to Barnsley, FLW’s Notts County Fan Pundit Gareth Parr believes Paterson will remain focused on County.

Gareth says: “To be honest, he’s a very difficult person to read at the best of times. He keeps things very close to his chest.

“What I would say is that Notts have found someone that both appears to be a great man manager as well as a tactician, something that they have struggled with in the past.

“Luke Williams was always a great man manager but I think he was tactically naive, particularly that first season back in the Football League. After Christmas, when teams had worked out how to play, they were very one-dimensional.

“Maynard, on the other hand, when he came in to replace Williams, was a great tactician, but I think he was a bit awestruck to be approached by an EFL team to be coach, and struggled at times to manage the players, albeit with limited resources.

“Paterson seems to have come in a bit more on the ball in terms of how stuff works.

“It is difficult to say. Barnsley looks as though they are going to finish in the bottom third, which is where Notts would ideally expect to find themselves next season if they were promoted.

“At this point in time, I think that Paterson would quite rightly say, ‘I’ve got work to do here, I’m very professional in my job, so I want to get that done before I even talk about doing anything else’.”

Martin Paterson should be cautious about Barnsley

Paterson, who played the bulk of his football with Burnley, is clearly already a highly-rated coach within the EFL and the 38-year-old may be of interest to others after an impressive season with Notts.

However, he will have to be cautious with regards to Barnsley, with supporters becoming increasingly frustrated with the seemingly haphazard running of the club.

Last Saturday morning, it was announced that Conor Hourihane, another young coach given a chance and in his first full season at Oakwell, will depart the club this summer.

Hourihane has overseen a Barnsley side that have been quite entertaining to watch but, again, have had to deal with the sale of a key man with Davis Keillor-Dunn leaving for Wrexham on the final day of the winter transfer window when the Tykes were in a position to launch a challenge for the top six and the play-off places.

In the 2024/25 season, Callum Styles was the major departure and the summer before that saw the sales of Mads Andersen, Brad Collins and Liam Kitching.

From being a yo-yo club between the Championship and League One before spending a couple of seasons among the leading contenders to jump back up from the third-tier, including the 2023 play-off final loss to Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley have now endured a couple of seasons of mid-table inertia and growing discontent within the fanbase.