Cal Roberts questions continue after Notts County taught harsh lesson by Torquay

Before Saturday’s National League match at Torquay kicked off, all the talk among Notts’ fans on the terraces and social media was about the continued absence of Cal Roberts, not only from the team but from the squad which travelled to the south-west.

By the time referee James Durkin blew the final whistle, questions regarding the absence of the talismanic striker had been almost entirely replaced by those querying the no-show of the Magpies’ defence as they left the field in tatters after a 5-1 drubbing which seriously dented their ambitions of achieving a top-three place come the end of the season.

The desire of a dynamic and physical Torquay side to keep their faint hopes of gatecrashing the play-offs alive once again exposed the defensive frailties of a Notts team which had shown signs of toughening up in recent games but were cruelly exposed here.

How head coach Ian Burchnall addresses those problems on the training pitch this week will only be revealed when Notts emerge at Meadow Lane for Friday’s clash with relegation-threatened King’s Lynn.

But he made no secret of his position regarding Roberts, dubbed "the Geordie Messi" by fans, who last donned a Notts shirt in the middle of last month but who proved his fitness by playing a full game for England C in their recent international against Wales.

“It is the same as last week, everybody is training, but I think people will agree that we went to Southend and played a good game, won 3-0 and the players were fantastic, so I didn’t see any need to change today,” said Burchnall after Saturday’s game.

“We can’t only talk about Cal, this isn’t the Cal show. There are other players - Ed Francis, Kairo Mitchell, Joel Taylor - who are not involved today but have done very