Ardley won’t give up as County slip seven from safety

Neal Ardley says he will “keep fighting until the end” after his Notts County team lost 2-0 at fellow strugglers Yeovil in League Two.

The Magpies proudly call themselves the oldest Football League club in the world but that status is seriously under threat after defeat at Huish Park left them seven points from safety at the bottom of the table.

“I can’t give up. The players can’t give up. I know it’s a perilous situation but many teams have done it before and we’ve got to believe we can do it,” Ardley said.

“We’ve got 17 games now. We need at least eight wins. It’s still doable.

“I think the players are beaten up by what’s happened. They feel the weight and expectation and they know the fans aren’t happy with them.

“All of that is difficult but I’ve just said to them in there, ‘you’ve got to be a man. You’ve got to take whatever people say and know you’re doing your best and keep striving to do it.’ We’ll keep fighting until the end.

“I’m trying to get this team to be competitive. We are a lot more competitive than before I arrived but I can’t seem to turn those performances into results at the moment. We need a win to lift us and take it forward with momentum.

“I take responsibility for everything and I won’t shy away from it. If we can’t do it at the end of the season I’ll take responsibility that I couldn’t turn it around.”

It was a much happier afternoon for Yeovil manager Darren Way, with an eighth-minute header from Tom James and a stoppage-time goal from Mihai Dobre securing back-to-back wins for the Glovers and only their second league victory at home this season.

“It feels good, that winning feeling. Hard work never lies and I think we have done that in the last two games,” said Way.

“What we didn’t want was a continuation of a run of games when we’re not picking up three points at home.

“But I was more pleased with the performance. I think the supporters could stand there today and they could see their team working hard and giving everything for the football club.

“We all know the scenarios we’ve had before with five minutes left to go but I just thought with the resilience, organisation, discipline throughout the group, we were never going to lose that game.

“The new faces have been great. I thought Josh Grant was unbelievable at right-back and Dobs (Dobre), we talked before the game about end product and he finished very well.

“What you’ve got now is a whole dressing room who are fighting hard for each other and doing everything to win games.”