Spurs loan watch: Disappointing day for Tottenham loanee

Down in League Two, George Abbott's Notts County side welcomed Gillingham to Meadow Lane in a top-of-the-table six-pointer clash.

For this game, Notts manager Stuart Maynard deployed Abbott in a different role than he had played so far, playing him as one of the two 'number tens' in his 3421 setup, playing alongside Conor Grant off of veteran striker David McGoldrick.

It was a bitter day for Notts, who fell to a narrow 1-0 defeat, their first of the season, courtesy of a 38th-minute goal from their visitors. The Magpies dominated possession, having 71% of the ball in total, but failed to make it count as they struggled to create consistent clear-cut opportunities against a stubborn and resilient Gillingham defence. Despite this defeat, they remain fourth in the league with 14 points from their opening seven games of the season.

Spurs loan watch: Disappointing day for Tottenham loanee

Abbott played the 90 minutes, which is of course an encouraging sign, even if it was not his best game. The midfielder struggled to impact the game too much from a more advanced position, not having his usual time on the ball and a high volume of touches from deeper areas like he is used to. He went close to opening the scoring after 28 minutes, but could not fire his left-footed strike from inside the box on target.

Next up for Notts County is a trip to Burton Albion in the Bristol St Motors trophy on Tuesday night, 19:45 BST. However, if the rules are the same as other domestic competitions, Abbott will be cup-tied, having played in the penalty shootout win for Spurs U21s against Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium back in August.

In that case, the next game for the Spurs loanee will be a trip North to play Morecambe in League Two on Saturday, with kick-off being 15:00 BST.