Notts County 'playing winning football' - Paterson

Notts County kept their first clean sheet since 2 April in their win over Fleetwood

Head coach Martin Paterson says Notts County "didn't play great football" but benefitted from "really tense" training sessions in their 1-0 home win over Fleetwood Town on Saturday.

League Two top scorer Matthew Dennis's sixth goal in five matches lifted the Magpies to 10th with their third win of a four-match unbeaten league run.

"It's been the same for the last two weeks at half-time - I probably wasn't someone to be around," Paterson told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"I have got two centre-forwards on for a reason, so when we get into dangerous areas, I'll let you do the maths [about] what I want.

"We came out in the second half and started to be a bit more positive with our passing and decision making.

"We didn't play great football and I'm not going to hide behind that. We're playing winning football at the moment and we defended the box ever so well.

"We had a togetherness and I've set a culture here. There will be days when we're not great and we have to take points."

Fleetwood had seven points from their previous three league trips this season and had more attempts on target than County, with home goalkeeper Kelle Roos making six of the nine saves in the match.

"They were excellent at playing proper football to win a game," Paterson said of his players, whose winner arrived in the 46th minute.

"The group have been put through some really tense sessions. That last 15 minutes looked like a session I do on defending the box.

"I'm really pleased with the group but they'll know that there are things I'm not happy with.

"We've played miles better than that and got nothing. We've played far better football in terms of what you see as better football - passing rotations and movement through the lines."

County visit leaders Gillingham, who are four points above them, on Saturday (15:00 BST).