Wrexham 0 Notts. County 1

Last updated : 17 January 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Notts County boss Gary Mills was delighted to get three points as his side notched their first win in seven league games.

"It was a great feeling," he said. "We obviously needed it because it's desperately important for us to pick up points.

"It was an excellent performance of great quality. It was essential for us to get more pace into the side and I couldn't have asked for more from the new boys who came in. They were tremendous." Disappointed Wrexham manager Denis Smith added: "I was not happy with the first-half display but we were better after the interval." "We have had a couple of bad results and somehow we have go to turn it around. We are not sticking away our chances." Andy Parkinson sealed the points with his goal on the half hour, benefiting from a lucky deflection when his chip from the edge of the box rebounded off a defender to wrong foot Andy Dibble at the back post.

County dominated the first half. Mark Stallard fired an early shot over the bar, another from Paul Bolland struck a defender and Darren Caskey hit a 30-yarder straight at the keeper.

Parkinson nearly added a second goal early in the second half, but Dibble denied him with a good save.

Wrexham had little to show for their efforts before the interval but Brian Carey went close with a header that David Pipe cleared off the line.

Magpies goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall made a great save to keep out a shot from Chris Llewellyn before Hector Sam headed over.

Smith gambled by putting on all three substitutes for the second half and it improved the performance for a while, but the move backfired badly when Sam was stretchered off injured on the hour leaving the side down to ten men.