Kevin Nolan: 'Notts County have come so far in last few weeks'

Kevin Nolan has urged his Notts County charges to put last week's 3-0 defeat at Stevenage behind them, think about how far the team has come in the last 10 games, and focus on "another big game" this Saturday.

The Magpies saw their five-match unbeaten run come to a halt at the Lamex Stadium last week with the heavy loss in Hertfordshire, cutting the gap between them and the bottom two to five points.

However, the manager is hopeful that Notts can bounce straight back when they host Hartlepool tomorrow.

"We had a fantastic run previous to the result last weekend, and it just shows how far we've come," Nolan told the Nottingham Post.

"Go back 10 games to when I first walked in we'd just gained a point after the first weekend and gone into the bottom two, and we were looking up at a lot of teams who weren't around us.

"It looked like a three or four-way scrap, but what we've managed to do in that time is bring a lot of teams around us into the scrap.

"We've got a cushion at the minute, but we knew we weren't safe. I kept telling you, and you didn't believe me.

"It's going to be a battle and every game is going to be tough, because every game in this league is tough.

"One bad result last week has not changed my mind. The positives out of it all was that we went five games unbeaten and that's what we've got to try and achieve again.

"The lads are working hard, they are buying into it. It was unfortunate we didn't reach our standards last week, but it wasn't all bad.

"At 3-0 it looks as if it's terrible, but we had a spell in the first half when we could've clawed a goal back and that would have changed the whole sense of the game.

"But it wasn't to be and we've got to take it on the chin, and we go again.

"It's another big game now because it's a home game. We've been fantastic at home since I've come through the door.

"I'm sure Hartlepool are going to come here and show us respect and we'll show them respect, but hopefully we're going to do enough to claim all three points."

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