Kevin Nolan blasts Notts County attitude

Posted Wednesday, August 22, 2018 by PA

Notts County manager Kevin Nolan questioned his players’ attitude after they fell to a 3-2 defeat at Newport.

A last-minute Jamille Matt strike secured all three points for the home side after Kristian Dennis looked to have salvaged a point for the Magpies four minutes earlier.

In an action packed first half Kane Hemmings put Notts County ahead before Fraser Franks and Mark Harris turned the game on its head.

“The lads have gifted them three goals again tonight,” said Nolan.

“I told them in the changing room afterwards that you can’t expect to score two goals away from home and end up losing.

“It’s just not good enough. We are absolutely gifting teams goals.

“We spent a lot of time on the training pitch yesterday doing set pieces yet we concede two goals from set pieces tonight. They are just getting it wrong at key moments of the game.

“There’s so much wrong with those three goals it is frightening. I gave the players simple instructions yesterday and they forgot the vast majority of it.

“I’m really disappointed.”

Newport manager Michael Flynn praised the character his side showed as they came from behind to stun their visitors.

“Lennie Lawrence said I’ll be dead by the time I’m 55 if we keep on winning games like this!” joked Flynn.

“It was a dramatic end. We seem to always leave it late against Notts County at home but the two goals we conceded tonight made it a much more difficult night than it should have been.

“We conceded when we were on top. We had chances to kill them off tonight and we should have made it 3-1 or even 4-1.

“We deserved to win and we should have been out of sight. The character and resilience my boys showed was outstanding.

“We could have easily thought let’s take a draw but no we went for it and it was a fantastic goal. Jamille’s made a huge impact off the bench and he did exactly what I wanted him to.”