Notts County head coach Martin Paterson was left to reflect on the uphill battle his side faced after seeing another player sent off at Oldham Athletic last night.
The Magpies were given their fifth red card of the season at Boundary Park yesterday evening, the joint highest amount in League Two this season.
Discipline
This has become a familiar story for County, and for Ollie Norburn. Trailing Chesterfield at Meadow Lane earlier this month, Norburn picked up a second yellow card inside the opening 20 minutes for throwing Armando Dobra’s boot away. And while Notts battled on admirably without him, twice drawing themselves level, they ultimately succumbed to defeat against their local rivals.
However, they responded in style with two big victories over Accrington Stanley and Cheltenham Town, scoring nine goals in the process. Norburn only returned to the Magpies side on Saturday against the Robins, but was once again the villain in Greater Manchester last night. Trailing in-form Oldham 1-0, he was dismissed for two bookable offences once more early in the second half.
Speaking to BBC Radio Nottingham, Paterson couldn’t hide his frustration at his side’s lack of discipline.
“When you are pushing for things in the league, five sending-offs generally means you are not going to quite get there because it’s just too many.
“It’s too many to carry if you add up all the minutes we have played with 10 men. And it was painful at the end [against Oldham], it really was.
“Let’s not shy away from it, the sending-off changes the game completely.”
Oldham For The Play-Offs?
There are two sides to every game, and Oldham are well worth speaking about in their own right. On 15th February, the Latics were 16th in the League Two standings, 14 points above the relegation zone and away from the play-off places. They were only one point above Tranmere Rovers, but the teams have gone in two completely different directions since.
Now, five weeks later, the two sides are separated by 25 points. Oldham have won five successive matches to sit just outside the top seven places. That deficit is now down to just a point, facing fellow play-off rivals Crewe Alexandra on Saturday afternoon. They blew Notts County away yesterday evening, denying them the chance to move into the top three places in the division.
Once again, Oldham were superb, producing perhaps their best performance of the campaign. Continuing this rich vein of form will take them into the play-offs and potentially carry them to successive promotions.