We take a look at how the Press viewed our 1-0 success against Dagenham & Redbridge at the weekend.

We provide you with the expert views of the Nottingham Evening Post's Stevie Roden, and also the views from Dagenham and their Match Report from their Official Website.

Nottingham Evening Post Report by Stevie Roden

Neil MacKenzie has not been the happiest of Notts County players over the past week.

It would have been understandable if his feelings for manager Steve Thompson were a little frayed after being dropped to the bench at MK Dons and again on Saturday against Dagenham & Redbridge.

But, after finally being introduced with just 17 minutes left on Saturday and the score goalless, the midfielder was determined to prove a point.

A natural footballer, he had watched on from the sidelines as the home crowd became frustrated at the Magpies' inability to break Dagenham down. Their impatience was growing increasingly clear as Notts time and again, especially as the pressure grew, played a direct game, knocking long balls forward to Jason Lee.

He knew it was not pretty and afterwards said he could see the game was waiting for someone to grab it by the scruff of the neck. And, when his chance finally came, he wasted no time in getting on the ball.

With the atmosphere intensifying as Notts looked to be heading for a sixth league game without victory, he showed he wanted to make a difference, when he spread a delightful 40-yard cross-field ball to Jay Smith.

And when the chance came as the ball fell in the box, he pounced just ten minutes after coming on to score what proved to be a late winner.

For MacKenzie it was point proven. He had made a difference but at the same time relieved the pressure on manager Thompson.

And the pressure for Thompson could not have been any greater. The fact results were going against Notts - they were without a win in eight in all competitions - was bad enough. But with four directors stepping down in a week of rapid change behind the scenes at Meadow Lane it must have made him feel insecure. Especially as two of those, Howard Wilkinson and former chairman Jeff Moore, were behind his appointment.

Thompson knew only a win would help relieve any doubt surrounding his position for the next week. But it looked like Notts were heading for a third consecutive home draw the longer this game progressed. The Magpies failed to play fluent football and it was far from a pretty game against a newly-promoted side that only threatened from set pieces.

But, despite conceding five of their eight league goals from set plays, they held out - and that was a real bonus. So is the first clean sheet. And the first win is vital.

The problem with the first half, after Thompson had reverted back to 4-3-3, was the only real threat came from Paul Mayo's deliveries from the left finding Lee. First Lee rose to head at the back post but his knock-down was too close to the goalkeeper and Spencer Weir-Daley could not pounce.

Then he had the goalkeeper scrambling to the far post but he got down to tip round his post. And the third time Weir-Daley was inches away from meeting the knock-down from Lee when Tony Roberts dived at his feet to collect.

Efforts from Lawrie Dudfield and Matt Somner flew off target while, at the other end, Sam Saunders cut in from the left of the box and managed to curl a shot towards the far corner, but it missed the goal.

Sloppy defending also allowed Dagenham to break but when a low ball was fired in from the byline to the near post, a superb tackle by Stephen Hunt denied Ben Strevens.

The crowd's frustration at the direct style of play intensified when Kevin Pilkington failed to throw the ball out to right back Lee Canoville and instead pumped it long.

Thompson said afterwards he could not stop his players making such decisions and that he wanted them to play on the floor. Although he conceded the pressure at times and nerves had led his players taking the long-ball option.

But after loud boos followed the Notts players down the tunnel at half-time, words must have been exchanged at the break as within seconds Pilkington threw the ball out to Canoville, and a sarcastic loud cheer went up from the home supporters. The irony was that Notts broke up the pitch and first Weir-Daley had a shot saved before Lee fed Weir-Daley and from an acute angle the striker saw his shot come back off the foot of a post.

It was an opening ten minutes to the second half that produced flowing football. But it soon evaporated as the tension came to the fore and the frustration and desperation crept into their game. Notts were almost punished from a corner when, despite Adam Tann's brave header under pressure, Strevens pounced on the loose ball, only to volley over. A Lee flick-on looked to put Weir-Daley in behind the defence but Anwar Uddin got a vital touch to take it out of the striker's path and deny him a shot on goal.

There were appeals for a Mayo corner having been forced over the line, but Saunders had cleared at the far post. Cue chants from the Jimmy Sirrel stand of "Thommo, sort it out" and the manager responded with MacKenzie being introduced for Richard Butcher, the late hero himself in three games this season.

And it worked, as MacKenzie took over Butcher's mantle as he pounced with a cool finish from ten yards with just seven minutes left.

Thanks to Shane Huke volleying just wide from a corner in the fourth minute of injury time, Notts secured a 1-0 win. It was far from convincing, lacked any real flowing football and the Magpies still looked far from slick in front of goal.

But after a week of turbulence off the pitch, they would just be happy to get a first win and put points on the board. MacKenzie had given himself reason to cheer once again.

In doing so he also gave Thompson real reason to celebrate. While the performance was far from vintage, the three points were vital for many reasons. But as MacKenzie pointed out, Notts would be kidding themselves if they thought similar performances will be enough to see off better and more equipped teams like Rotherham and Chesterfield in the next two games.

So, while everyone is happy to have finally secured a first win, there is plenty to do on the training field this week. Rather than being down in the dumps, MacKenzie will be smiling again over the next few days after his late heroics.

He will want to do the same against Rotherham this weekend - but instead of a bit part, he wants to be instrumental from the start by being reinstated to the starting line-up. And by the importance of his goal on Saturday at the end of a difficult week for everybody at Notts, you would not bet against that happening at Millmoor.

Match Report from Dagenham's Official Website by Phil Ravitz

DAGGERS will be particularly pleased that there are no League 2 teams with the name County that they have to visit in their remaining 38 league fixtures this season writes Phil Ravitz.

Because in almost a carbon-copy of their visit to Edgley Park, Stockport, a month earlier, the home Notts County scraped a 1-0 win over John Still's side with a goal six minutes from time, thanks to a substitution.

Just as Stockport boss Jim Gannon had introduced striker Liam Dickinson for the final 20 minutes of Daggers' visit to Greater Manchester a month ago, and the striker came up with an 84th minute winner that got Daggers' League life off to a losing start, so Notts County boss Steve Thompson (no relation to his namesake - the Daggers' MD) did the same trick.

With 18 minutes left, the beleaguered Thompson, still looking for his side's first win in six starts and with the 'oldest League club in the world' languishing in the bottom six of League 2, introduced midfielder Neil Mackenzie.

Just as Dickinson had done for Stockport, so Mackenzie did the trick for Notts, when Leo Canoville's high ball into the area was headed down by the much travelled home skipper Jason Lee, it bounced off Ross Smith and into the path of Mackenzie who took it on to drive firmly past Tony Roberts. There was seven minutes, this time, left!

It was scant luck on Smith and scant luck on Daggers generally, who deserved at least a draw from the game.

While their visit to Stockport had been a 'backs to the wall' effort for most of the 90 minutes, here they had dominated large periods of the game, particularly in the closing 20 minutes of the first-half, when they should have capped their dominance with a goal.

But the fact that Notts keeper Kevin Pilkington didn't have a single serious save to make told its own story.

"We are missing a cutting edge,'' said a disappointed John Still after the game. "We need a focus for our attacks.''

That focus is clearly Paul Benson (knee) and Jon Nurse (groin), who are both still a couple of weeks from full fitness.

The game didn't get off on the best note for Daggers, when they lost Magnus Okuonghae's considerable presence in the warm-up, the giant defender pulling a groin muscle.

Ross Smith was drafted in to partner a fit-again Anwar Uddin and played a herculian 90 minutes subduing the aerial threat of Jason Lee, in a highly physical contest. Newly signed teenager Kraig Rochester came in on the bench, having joined a fortnight ago from Leicester City.

The opening 20 minutes belonged to an eager Notts, Laurie Dudfield fired a good opening well over the top and Matt Somner did the same when set up by the lively Spencer Weir-Daley.

Tony Roberts was brought to a scrambling save at his far post, as Jason Lee leapt high to a Paul Mayo cross and got in a downward header, but Roberts just managed to turn it around.

Sam Saunders, one of Daggers' liveliest performers on the afternoon, produced the first real effort from the visitors in 25 minutes, slipping a couple of challenges and lofting his shot for the opposite top corner. It cleared the bar by inches.

That sparked a period of real Daggers' pressure. Chris Moore cleverly opened up the Notts defence and set up Sam Sloma. His low, driven cross seemed destined for Ben Strevens or Moore, but Adam Tann made a desperate interception and when the ball ran loose, neither of the Daggers' front pair could turn it home.

Danny Foster struck a 25 yard volley that cleared the cross-bar and Pilkington was forced to make a tumbling interception as Sloma tried to test him from 25 yards.

Notts began the second-half in similar lively fashion to the first, but despite Weir-Daley striking the outside of the post from a tight angle, Daggers nullified the home threat well.

Strevens produced an acrobatic side-volley from a Saunders corner that just went over, while keeper Roberts showed commendably, tricky footwork to take the ball away from the marauding Weir-Daley to allow skipper Uddin to complete a clearance.

The Daggers keeper was beaten from a right-wing corner, when Notts' Steve Hunt got in a header, but Saunders was on the spot to hack the effort off the line.

It was the only close call the visitors had to survive and a point began to look assured until Notts made their late change, a switch that sent Daggers home with no reward and still seeking their first League 2 away point and first League 2 away goal.