Kevin Nolan looks back at sensational first year as Notts County boss

Kevin Nolan's managerial tenure at Notts County has today hit the one-year mark and the gaffer had plenty to reminisce about, but insists there is to be no resting on laurels.

This time last year, the Magpies were seemingly destined for the Conference, and perhaps even extinction, until Alan Hardy took over the club and brought Nolan along with him.

There was a lot of doubt over the appointment, given his relative inexperience - he had only had a short stint at Leyton Orient - and the task at hand.

However, Nolan went on to secure safety with several games to spare and, in the current campaign, has guided Notts to the automatic promotion spots and the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The former midfielder described the "great escape" as his proudest achievement, especially as "no-one believed", but is eager to keep building and ensure that 2018 is just as joyous as 2017, if not more.

“Last year when we came in after 10 games on the spin losing and then stayed up the way we did, that’s a great escape,” he told the Nottingham Post.

“It was fantastic what the players achieved after what they’d been through, so for me that was the proudest achievement.

“There’s no better escape than that because we were 91st in the league, had lost 10 games on the spin, were hours from going into administration.

"A new owner comes in and apparently gives a rookie manager who doesn’t know much a chance, and we do what we did. That’s how it was. That’s my greatest achievement because no one believed.

“For me, it’s been a fantastic 12 months, it has. I’ve loved every minute of it and I’m hoping we can continue to grow together – the club, myself, Alan (Hardy), together we can just keep making this club better, we can get it to where Alan wants it to be. But we’re still in the early phase of that, we’re a year in.

"There’s not many teams can say they’ve had the success we’ve had in the first year. For me, it’s about making sure we maintain our dignity and not get too carried away and too proud of ourselves, and start patting each other on the back because we’re still in our infancy, we’ve still got a long, long way to go in everything. We’ve got a lot of work to go to get to where we want to, and to succeed.”

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