Notts County boss Martin Paterson admitted his side were under pressure to perform before recording their first win of the season in Wednesday’s 4-1 victory against Shrewsbury Town.
The Magpies had gone into the match with just one point from a possible nine in League Two so far but were comfortably the better side at Meadow Lane, playing confident, one-touch football.
“(I’m) happy because, I’ll be honest with you, there was pressure going into that game and rightly so because of what’s gone on in the first three games,” Paterson, who took over from the sacked Stuart Maynard in June, told BBC Radio Nottingham.
“It’s not all been dour but certainly we needed to put a full 90-minute performance together and I thought we did that.”
Goals from Matthew Dennis, Sonny Aljofree, Nick Tsaroulla and Conor Grant saw County cruise to victory against an out-of-form Shrewsbury side who have now lost every match since their draw against Bromley on the opening day of the season.
“There’s still a few things inside it that we can’t get carried away with – we’ve had people do that against us and I don’t agree with it – the important thing is we pay respect to the opponents,” Paterson added.
“Tonight was the first performance that looked like Notts County.
“With that, there were still moments in the second half when I thought they were doing it on purpose, the lads, trying to wind me up with some of their decisions but that’s growth.
“So, positive night, four good goals, but I still want that clean sheet. That’s really important, that shouldn’t be swept under the carpet and it won’t be with the back unit.”
County continue their League Two campaign with a home fixture against Bromley on Saturday (15:00 BST).
