Ian Burchnall has issued a defiant message on the back of a disappointing couple of results for Notts County in their bid for promotion.
The Magpies saw their eight-match unbeaten run in all competitions ended at the weekend as they went down 1-0 at fellow promotion hopefuls Bromley.
After six straight wins - four in the National League and two in the FA Trophy - Burchnall's men have now picked up only one point from a possible six and failed to score in those two games (in a 0-0 draw with Wealdstone and against Bromley).
That has left Notts eighth in the table - just outside the play-off zone and now nine points behind leaders Stockport County.
They do still have games in hand over most of the sides around them, and Burchnall believes there will be plenty more twists and turns to come yet in the race to reach the EFL.
"It's important that we've got those games in hand and if we maximise the points, I think we're in the middle of the play-offs, not too far off the top, and there's a lot of football to play," he said. "There's so much football to play.
"We know we can still keep getting better. At the start of the season, Dagenham flew away with it, they've dropped off. Grimsby were flying, they've dropped off. Stockport are flying right now.
"But if we think this is how it's going to be between now and the end of the season, I think we'll be surprised.
"A lot of teams are still in the running - we're absolutely one of them. We'll just pick ourselves up from this and go back at it for the next game.
"We need to trust the players. They've done a great job so far this season. This is a little blip.
"I credit Bromley as well. They played their part in the game. They were really, really resolute and difficult to break down, which we knew they would be.
"So we just take it on the chin and we go again."
Notts have been frustrated by a string of postponements due to a combination of Covid and the weather.
This factor may well have affected the team's momentum at a critical stage of the campaign.
"If you take Southend, Dagenham, Eastleigh, King's Lynn, Wrexham - I think we've played some brilliant games there," Burchnall added.
"But when we went into Wealdstone, we'd had two weeks since the last league game and, of course, you could see that a little bit in us.
"But I thought we played well in the first half (at Bromley). We were unlucky, Ruben (Rodrigues) hitting the post and the two off the line.
"So I can't fault how we started but it looked like we'd just lost that little bit... you know, we were coming from behind in other games.
"(On Saturday) we didn't get that extra edge when we needed it in the second half."
Notts are back in National League action on Saturday, when they take on Grimsby Town at Meadow Lane.
Grimsby made a fine start to the season, winning nine of their opening 12 league matches.
However, the 2-1 win over Wealdstone at the weekend was only their third victory in 13 league outings - a run which has included nine defeats.
The Mariners are 10th in the table, three points behind the Magpies, having played two more games than them.
