Dearden - "Losing Fenton Was No Excuse"

Last updated : 24 March 2003 By
Nicky Fenton
Fenton, who has been in impressive form this season, went off at half time with a dead leg with Notts just 1-0 down at the time but a shocking 2nd half performance saw Notts conceed 4 more goals.

"I pointed at him in the dressing room after the match and told them 'losing him is not an excuse'," Dearden told the Evening Post.

"That is like saying if we had lost Mark Stallard we would not have scored another goal.

"If you lose a player through injury you expect other players to stand up and do a job. It is as simple as that.

"But that didn't happen. Nobody did their jobs properly and there can be no excuses for that."


However, Dearden has one of the toughest jobs in the country, he can't just dip into the transfer market and drop a few players due to the terrible financial mess at Notts at the moment.

"I have been resigned to the fact that we can't bring players into the club for some time," Added Dearden.

"So it is down to these players to sort things out for us."