Notts County match-winner Matt Tootle eager to end "strange season" on high note

Matt Tootle is optimist that a "strange season" for Notts County can end on a high note after moving 11 points clear of the League Two drop zone.

The Magpies put in an immense performance to claim a 1-0 win over Barnet at Meadow Lane on Sunday, Tootle scoring a second-half winner.

Kevin Nolan's charges were visibly exhausted at the end of the game, having been a man down for most of the game after Mark Yeates was sent off early on by referee Keith Stroud.

Tootle told the official Notts site: “I’ve scored a few in the league but that’s my first one in a while.

"It was a good first one for Notts and, the way the game went with us only having 10 men, I think it was a great time to get it. I was made up to get the goal.

"Driving here today I knew how important the three points were for us and I’m over the moon with how it’s gone.

“Of course we aren’t mathematically safe and, although teams down the bottom are struggling to win also, we aren’t resting on our laurels until we're fully safe.

"The gaffer has been really putting us through our paces in training. The work we are doing at the moment has set us up for the busy schedule - we are fitter than we were two months ago and I felt we looked like the team with 11 men at the end today.

“As a defender you want clean sheets and even today with ten men we looked really organised and strong as a unit. That’s testament to the gaffer coming in and doing the work with the lads.

“We want to finish as best as we can. If we can win another five or six this season, which we are more than capable of doing, we can end what has been a strange season on a high note."

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