Mark Cooper hoping for some fighting spirit from his Notts County side

Notts County manager Mark Cooper is hoping his players put up more of a fight against Cambridge United tomorrow, as they look to bounce back from two straight defeats.

The Magpies lost 5-0 at near neighbours Mansfield Town last Saturday, followed by a 3-1 defeat at Barnet on Tuesday.

And Cooper is hoping his team can show some fighting spirit when they take on Cambridge United at Meadow Lane tomorrow.

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“We’ve got to make sure we have a good end to the season,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me in blooding young players, but alternatively you can give the players who dug themselves in a hole for the last two games, a chance to get out of it.

“It’s a conundrum.

“We will see in the performance on Saturday whether they can drag themselves up and be up for the fight.

“They are not all that way. We have some players who will fight, but possibly not enough.

“You can talk about the past but it’s gone.”

And responding to criticism of his team from other teams, he said: “In the pre-match meeting on Tuesday, I showed them comments made by Mansfield. You shouldn’t want to read that as a player. It should really hurt.

“That’s two managers now and they can’t all be wrong.

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“We have to put a group together that’s going to fight and scrap and play some decent football.

“I want to trust players and pat them on the back and say ‘hey, well done out there.

“But they have to give me 95 minutes of effort and desire. You have to earn the right to play.”