Head coach Martin Paterson fumes over Notts County’s red card record after suffering a 3-0 defeat to Oldham on Tuesday night.
He said the amount of red cards has hurt their bid for promotion from League Two, with Oliver Norburn receiving marching orders in the 48th minute, being shown a second yellow card when 1-0 down.
This was also Norburn’s second game back since that bizarre red card for throwing a boot away during defeat to Chesterfield.
The latest red card means the Magpies have for a fifth time finished a man down in League Two this season, three dismissals coming in the last three losses.
“Never seen anything like it” – Ollie Norburn’s red card; Chesterfield beat Notts County 3-2
Paterson said to BBC Radio Nottingham: “When you are pushing for things in the league, five sending-offs generally means you are not going to quite get there because it’s just too many,”
“It’s too many to carry if you add up all the minutes we have played with 10 men. And it was painful at the end [against Oldham], it really was.
“Let’s not shy away from it, the sending-off changes the game completely.
“I’ve always had a confidence in my group to come back from goal down, but the sending off changes the dynamic and picture of the game,” he added.
“We struggled from that moment on really because we tried to be aggressive with two strikers, but that backfired with them getting a bit of ascendency in the wide areas and then we had to change again to make sure we didn’t give them too many opportunities.”
#Notts boss Martin Paterson fumes over Notts County’s red card recordhttps://t.co/2AzXmba7Ht
— BBC Nottingham Sport (@BBCRNS) March 25, 2026
Oldham boss Micky Mellon said, per Oldham Times: “It was terrific performance in really difficult conditions against a really good team. All round, couldn’t fault the lads. It was really tricky conditions to play the way that we played and work as hard as we did.
“We got over the line on Saturday, but tonight I think we played with a bit of style on and thoroughly deserved the victory.
“We did everything that was necessary in a game against a very good side. We were disappointed with our performance when we went down there but we certainly showed a better version of ourselves this evening.
“Notts County have been consistent and they knock out results week, we’ve said that we have to find that consistency, we have to get those results. We’re doing it now. Earlier in the season we’ve drawn too many games and not taken enough of our chances but now we look more clinical and we’re looking a good team.
“At the minute we are punishing teams, which I said we would have to do in order to make our way up the division. We’re punishing teams now, when we get these opportunities we’re clinical and we’re keeping clean sheets.
“It’s fantastic, it’s a great run. I think we’ve equalled the all-time clean sheet record tonight as well.
“Like I say all the time you’ve got to celebrate the wins and you’ve got to congratulate your team on the work that’s been done but we’ll very quickly come back down to earth again. We’ll enjoy our victory and we’ll get everybody back in again on Thursday and it will only be about Crewe.
“We’ve sold out the away end again so those people need to be represented as always, and we will be going all out to try to represent them properly and try to get another result.”
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Here’s how fans reacted while Martin Paterson fumes over Notts County’s red card record after a 3-0 defeat to Oldham…
@KRennicks40: Ask Martin where the effort was. None existent from minute one. Chance to go into the top 3 tonight, couldn’t have looked any less interested if they tried. Reality check. Wake up.
@Darth1279185864: How shit have we been recently defence wise. We’ve been conceding way more than per usual. Norburn needs dropping. We need to stop this get 10 yellow cards a game too.
@APLNCFC1862: They didn’t deserve that following after that performance. Disgraceful. All the hard work of the last few games undone by a petulant Norburn AGAIN.
@SpaffNCFC: Bad night is an understatement. Embarrassing
@Ryannn_NCFC: Refund every single of the poor 1,101 bastards. Capitulating at every half decent side
@Andrewk1978: Worst performance of the season, can’t afford many more of those if want automatic promotion. No Platt or Rod massive misses, Robbo out & Norburn unable to keep himself on the pitch fast becoming a liability.
@adamjamesred: The manager and his players have been largely excellent this season, but they were all abject tonight. MP set the side up all wrong, players struggled to cope with the conditions (Oldham’s didn’t) and we were bullied all over the pitch. We’ve been properly humbled there. Awful.
@dom2004: Shambles think we’ve got to stop with the talk about opportunities to go to the top 3 we don’t want it enough we don’t start matches well at all at the moment and too many red cards all over the place
@GedlingPie: I don’t wanna see Norburn in a Notts shirt again. He’s too much of a liability now.
@ARLukomski: They wanted it more. We couldn’t be arsed all night. We looked like we would’ve been happy if it got called off. Self inflicted goals. Caught on the counter twice and a stupid backpass. Norburn gave the ref a decision to make when on a yellow. Total shit
Cheers for coming chaps, Shame Jatta didn’t play tonight x pic.twitter.com/SmJxHGgImh
— Alex145 (@T145Alex) March 24, 2026
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