Stuart Maynard ’embarrassed’ by Notts County’s defeat to Sutton

Notts County boss Stuart Maynard was “embarrassed” by his side’s 4-3 defeat at home to Sutton – the first time since 2016 they have lost three consecutive home games.

The Magpies dropped to 14th in Sky Bet League Two, four points off the play-off places, on yet another frustrating evening for the new County boss.

“It’s a performance I’m not proud of. It’s a performance as a whole that I feel embarrassed by, especially the manner in which we have conceded goals once again – it’s a really frustrating evening.”

The visitors opened the scoring inside six minutes, the 10th time Notts County have conceded inside the opening 10 minutes this season and something Maynard is keen to address.

“Look, we’ve conceded within five minutes again. No matter who you play in this division, whether it’s in the top end or the bottom end, if you give that team the opportunity to go ahead against you it’s always going to be difficult.

“We end up getting back in the game and then killing ourselves and it’s a really poor performance tonight.

“I think when you pull it back to 2-2 you always feel like you have the chance of coming out and performing to a better level and can go and win the game.

“Unfortunately, we came out in the second half and I don’t think we performed to a very good level. I think since we’ve been here as a management team the performance level has not been good enough tonight, whereas previous times we have been a bit unlucky.”

Sutton manager Steve Morison was delighted for his side, who recorded just their second away win of the season to boost their survival hopes.

“We deserved that, us and the players have worked incredibly hard ever since I have come in,” Morison said. “The staff have been phenomenal and supported me and the rest of the guys and they have been excellent.

“It’s been a tough week personally, but I’m glad we got that result because we deserved it.”

There was a pivotal moment in the first half when striker Harry Smith was hauled down inside the area following a tussle with Scott Robertson in midfield.

Had a penalty been given, it would have given the visitors the opportunity to go 3-1 up in the first half, with the U’s boss having some choice words for fourth official James Oldham.

“I said to the fourth official ‘what you lot should do over the weekend is go and play football because you would actually understand that just because he is 6ft 6ins, it doesn’t mean you can’t have fouls against him’ and it does feel like that at times.”