A big frustration – Notts County manager Stuart Maynard rues missed chances

Notts County manager Stuart Maynard was left frustrated by his side’s performance after they suffered a late defeat to Cheltenham.

The Magpies took an early lead through Alassana Jatta, but goals from Jordan Thomas and Ethon Archer all but ended the hosts’ automatic promotion hopes.

Maynard said: “You look at all the chances we created and we limited them to very few chances.

“I don’t know how many shots we had, probably in the region of 21 shots, we’ve hit the bar, we’ve hit the post.

“Yes, you can say we do need to be more clinical because we’ve only scored one, but it’s just a big frustration.”

Referee James Durkin was jeered for large parts of the match by County supporters, but Maynard said it was up to his side to make sure they put games to bed.

He added: “We’ve just got to focus on ourselves and make sure that the next game we come back and we come back even stronger.

“We’ve got to try and make sure we’re not reliant on the officials to make decisions in the game. We had enough opportunities today to put the game to bed without the officials.”

Cheltenham equalised when Thomas finished from close range and, even though County continued to press forward, it was Archer who made the decisive contribution with a superb effort from the edge of the area.

Robins boss Michael Flynn said: “We know he (Archer) can do it, but I told him he hasn’t been doing that of late. He knows that.

“He’s frustrated with himself, but I thought he was really good in midfield today. When I dropped him back he had a very
good game at Newport then he dropped off a bit.

“He started saying he wanted to go back out wide and all those things, but he’s had consistency out there. Regardless, it’s about the team and there’s no I in team.”

Flynn also praised defender Sam Stubbs, who made a mistake for the opener late in the first half.

He said: “We shot ourselves in the foot, but what I was impressed with most is Sam didn’t let his head drop. I thought he was outstanding.

“We created nothing, we were very organised. It took a mistake really to get that goal.”