Torquay win leaves Magpies sweating on league status

While two months ago it looked like the Magpies' fans would be getting out their promotion calculators for the season's run-in, a dreadful sequence of just one win in 14 matches means that all eyes are instead firmly fixed on the lower-end of the Division.

Torquay still fill the second of the division's two relegation slots but the last-minute appointment of Ian Atkins as first-team manager has given the doomed-looking Seagulls' hope of survival, a point illustrated by a rampant success over Stockport, who had themselves recently charged out of the bottom two.

Atkins' men were three-up inside the first 22 minutes, with veteran striker Lee Thorpe - a man Gudjon Thordarson (left) tried to sign in the January transfer window - leading the way with two goals.

Torquay are now in 23rd position - three points below Notts - with only goal-difference seperating them from Oxford Utd a place higher.

Two points further up lie Stockport, Barnet and Macclesfield, with Notts and Bury just one point higher.

Rushden & Diamonds are bottom with 45 points, but no-one up to Chester in 14th position is yet mathematically safe - contrary to reports in this weekend's national newspapers.

The Magpies travel to sixth-placed Cheltenham this weekend, before finishing this tremendously topsy-turvy season at home to Bury - who are currently one place higher then Notts on goal difference.

It couldn't happen. Could it?

To view the latest League Two table, click here.

---

For all the latest on Notts' end-of-season antics, plus all the build-up to Ian Richardson's testimonial - stay tuned to NCM.