Notts County’s late heroics even made Martin Paterson want to celebrate

Notts County boss Martin Paterson admitted the Magpies’ late show in the 2-1 win at Walsall was so big even he had to get in on the celebrations.

The Magpies moved within a point of League Two’s automatic promotion spots after Jodi Jones’ stoppage-time header sparked wild celebrations among the near-2,000 travelling fans.

County trailed to Aaron Pressley’s opener in first-half stoppage time but Oliver Norburn crashed home a stunning 20-yard strike to equalise before Jones won it from Maziar Kouhyar’s cross.

“I normally stay quite calm, I don’t want to get involved in the fist pumps as I’ve got a job to do, but today was big,” Paterson said.

“It was a fantastic feeling to win the game so late and the second-half performance was a recognition of, when we’re at our best, what we should look like.

“The first half wasn’t good enough but the most important thing at this stage of the season is to stay calm and keep sticking to our process.

“The most pleasing thing was the manner in which we played to go and get those two goals.

“We have massive players out at the moment, we are missing massive pieces but it doesn’t matter – football doesn’t owe you anything, you’ve got to get the job done.

“The fashionable thing is to talk about patterns and rotations but sometimes football is about mentality – to run, to tackle, to get into that box and head a ball.”

Walsall suffered a fourth straight home defeat and fifth loss in seven overall, having slumped from top at Christmas to 11th – but are still just three points off the play-offs.

Aden Flint had a header ruled out for offside before Pressley’s opener while Daniel Kanu and Charlie Lakin were among the players to spurn other opportunities.

Walsall boss Mat Sadler said: “Credit to the lad (Norburn) – it was an unbelievable goal and he shifted the momentum for them.

“When it’s only 1-0, you’re always open to that and that’s the frustration.

“For 80 minutes it was a very good performance but we didn’t capitalise on some of the other opportunities we had and we weren’t quite clinical enough to make it 2-0, which we deserved to.

“I’ll always err on the side of performance but that was a tough one to take today.

“Every season is the same – it’s about who picks up at this stage of the season and takes that momentum with them. Everyone is so close in this division.

“It’s up to us to wrestle it back. And we have to do it from a base of performances. If we keep playing like that, results will turn.”