Notts County head coach Ian Burchnall praised his players for ‘giving everything’ in recording a 1-0 win over Dover Athletic at Meadow Lane as a run of three games in six days came to an end with the club firmly entrenched in the National League play-off places.
However, there was frustration at times among the home fans in a crowd of over 6,000 that the Magpies were not able to demolish a side they beat 3-0 away last week and are already relegated.
Examination of footage after the game revealed that the Kyle Wootton effort Notts had ruled out for offside in the 72nd minute should have stood, and that would have given them a two-goal cushion and may have forced Dover to come out of their shell earlier and open the door for further Notts goals.
Instead the visitors continued to defend in depth, and Burchnall admitted he was disappointed that some fans vented their discontent on his team, who dominated possession throughout but couldn’t add to Ruben Rodrigues’ first-half goal, after the win left them just one point away from securing a play-off place and in control of fifth position, which would give them a home quarter-final in the play-offs.
“I think people can underestimate how hard it is, regardless of what team you are playing against, when they put 11 men so low. It’s a challenge to open that up, it’s not easy, you have to be really patient. We opened them up plenty of times, had over 20 shots, plus corners, and we didn't give away any chances, other than one set piece near the end.
“This is the part of the season where we are under pressure every game and it’s not easy to maintain total control for 90 minutes, and I thought we did that today. We did break them down, we had a few one-on-ones, their keeper has made some incredible saves. But the important thing is that we won, while Dagenham and Chesterfield dropped points, and that strengthens our position. We are at the part of the season where we need the strongest possible results and I think that’s seven wins in the last nine, so we are in a good position.
“I don’t understand why after 30 minutes, when we are 1-0 up, in total control and creating good chances, there is booing. Our players are giving everything and they are under pressure. You see a lot of top teams, in our league and others, faltering because these games can become stressful. We were playing against a team who gave no space at all and you have to be unbelievably patient.
“I wasn’t stressed. I can understand people want us to score three, four, five goals in every game but we have scored in every home game, we are close to 80 goals for the season and we regularly put on games which are good to watch, so I don’t understand the frustration at all. I can’t apologise for scoring lots of goals this season but only taking one of 20 chances today.
“The players controlled the moments well. Sam Slocombe didn’t have much to do but what he had to do he did very well, Alex Lacey was excellent, Matty Palmer ticked the ball over well and Jayden Richardson was excellent in the first half.”
Burchnall made eight changes to the team which lost at Aldershot on Saturday but said that was not due to the disappointing performance at the EBB Stadium.
“A lot of the changes were pre-planned because we knew certain players would only make one of those 90 minutes - none of them were performance-related. Everything was based on protecting players and making sure we didn’t pick up any unnecessary injuries.”
