Notts County head coach Stuart Maynard has claimed his side deserved to come away with at least a point following a 1-0 loss to Mansfield Town on Saturday in the Nottinghamshire Derby.
The Magpies travelled to Field Mill at the weekend, hoping to continue their push for the playoffs but were left bitterly disappointed after a Davis Keillor-Dunn goal in the eighth minute sealed all three points for the Stags.
🎬 The action from an excellent Nottinghamshire Derby win at One Call Stadium yesterday. #Stags 🟡🔵 pic.twitter.com/ejDpHOSg6R
— Mansfield Town FC (@mansfieldtownfc) February 4, 2024
The victory meant that Nigel Clough’s side moved to within four points of League Two leaders Stockport County and lifted the club into the automatic promotion places, leaping above Wrexham who have now suffered back-to-back defeats in England’s fourth tier.
Notts County have picked up merely two points in four league matches which is the lowest points haul in this timespan compared to any other side in the division apart from Doncaster Rovers. The team’s status inside the top seven is also hanging on by a thread, staying ahead of Harrogate Town on goal difference.
Maynard has been in charge for two matches since succeeding Luke Williams in the Meadow Lane dugout but is still searching for his first win as manager of the Magpies. Nevertheless, the 43-year-old remained positive in his assessment of his side’s derby defeat, claiming that the key to success for the club will be putting consecutive victories together [quotes via Nottinghamshire Live]:
“We’ve got to take the positives from this and go again.
“We were in this game until the end and I think we deserved to come away with something, at the very least a point, but if we go ahead in the first half, which the clear chances we had warranted then we could’ve gone on to win.
“We wanted to win this game so it’s very disappointing to end up with the result we had because we know it is huge for the fans for bragging rights amongst other things,” he continued.
“We’ll just got one game at a time, we’re right in the [play-off] mix at the minute but it’s a tight division so one or two wins could pull us away from the chasing pack and that is something that we hope can happen soon.
“If we can get one win on the board, the group has enough to follow it up with another straight away and I think that is the key to success for us.”
Writer’s View
Notts County have some huge games on the horizon which could make or break the club’s season, with fixtures against Gillingham, Newport County and Wrexham fast approaching. Failing to win any of these three matches could leave the side several points adrift of the final playoff place.
However, it also offers Maynard and his men the perfect opportunity to get back on track by putting promotion rivals to the sword so should certainly be looked at as a positive and not a negative.
Deputy Head of Writing
