Alan Smith: 'Notts County players let Jamie Fullarton down'

Notts County midfielder Alan Smith has bemoaned his side’s performance in their 4-1 defeat against Exeter City, saying the squad let now-departed manager Jamie Fullarton down.

The Magpies were level with the Grecians at half time, but soon collapsed in the second half at Meadow Lane as the Devon side left the East Midlands with all three points.

Speaking before Fullarton’s sacking was confirmed, Smith said: "The manager puts us out there to perform and we've let him down.

"He is bearing all the brunt of the frustration and a lot of that is our responsibility. We need to make sure we go away and look at ourselves because we've got to start doing more.

"The fans have stuck with the players but it's down to us to help the manager. There is no other way to change that other than to get results.

"We've got to stay positive and keep believing that what we are doing in training because we can't keep doing it sporadically in matches.

"The manager is bearing up well, but that's the type of person he is. He is not letting affect him and he is not letting it affect us.

"But maybe as a group of players we've actually let it affect us. We've got to start giving the manager a bit back, because he has taken the brunt of the frustration.

Analysing the Exeter game, the former Manchester United man said: "The first half reflected what we had worked on during the week. Everybody knew their jobs, and everybody knew Exeter's strengths and weaknesses.

"We managed to keep that strength to a minimum, and even for the first 15 minutes of the second half, we did okay. Then we got hit by a sucker punch in the middle of the park and the lad finished it well.

"That's the way it has been going recently. Confidence is low and we didn't respond to going 2-1 down.

"That surprised me really because the attitude of the whole club was positive. But to be fair we have got to look at ourselves now.

"I've had spells in my career where I've had everything go against me and for the young lads, this is a learning curve.

"But this is minimum compared to some other clubs you might play for in terms of expectation.

"You've just got to make sure that even if you get beat, make sure you get beat the right way. What happened against Exeter was the wrong way."

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