THERE were frequent times last season when Notts County were so hospitable towards visiting teams that the only thing missing was a welcome mat in the away dressing room.
But even though Shaun Derry has a new group of players in a desire to return Meadow Lane to an impenetrable fortress, his verdict after this defeat was familiar in tone.
"We never got in their faces," he said with a furrowed brow. "I never felt we did the ugly side of the game and we never caused them problems with the ball."
Derry is always blunt in his assessments of his team's performances and few would disagree with him as to what was the root cause of this morale-jarring 1-0 defeat to a spirited Fleetwood.
As the manager rightly alluded to, Notts were just a little too nice to a team who could scarcely believe how comfortable they were made to feel especially in the opening 45 minutes.
Combine that with some erratic decision making and the consequence was the anticipation and excitement of a first home game of the season was dowsed out rather quickly.
Derry, along with his assistant Greg Abbott, prowled the touchline throughout and their body language portrayed a mood of deep frustration.
They are both big believers in earning the right to win matches and by that it means rattling a few shinpads not to mention sticking the odd player in row Z.
That may stray from the rules of the fair play handbook, but there are many ways to win a football match – being fierce is one of them.
If you can make teams fear being in possession then you are half way there, but that was never the case here.
Fleetwood were actively encouraged by Notts to get on the ball and in the first half you often wondered which team was supposed to be at home.
Alan Smith's absence from Derry's midfield was acutely felt because the former Manchester United star, as he has so often proved in his career, is not afraid of upsetting a few people.
His marauding nature was sorely missed and Derry will hope the midfielder's injury does not keep him sidelined for too long ahead of a busy month.
Fleetwood more than benefited from his unavailability with comfortable periods of possession and following Notts' unconvincing start, they knew the result was for the taking.
In his post-match press conference, their manager, Graham Alexander, grizzled at the suggestion that Notts had made it easy for his team.
He credited hard work on the training ground for the attacking play but the truth was Notts stood off for them for too long and the Magpies only snapped out of the malaise after the half-time break.
By then, the damage had been done as Jamie Proctor's goal was symptomatic of the sluggishness which had poisoned Notts' performance.
Indeed, Fleetwood were probably unfortunate before their breakthrough given they wasted some good chances in the opening stages.
Gareth Evans should have really done better when he fired straight into the chest of Roy Carroll after being teed up by Josh Morris.
Stephen Jordan headed beyond the post from a corner while Carroll also made a fantastic save to push a Morris shot around the post.
An injury to Blair Adams perhaps summed up Notts' fortunes as it led to a reshuffle of the back-four and Fleetwood took advantage.
With Mustapha Dumbuya shifted to left-back, and Curtis Thompson introduced to the right-back slot, Morris' cross from the right ended with Proctor ghosting in and nodding into the far corner.
Had Thompson been on the pitch for longer instead of trying to adapt to the game literally just moments after coming on as a sub then perhaps it could have been avoided.
Derry demanded a response during half-time as he tried to repair the confidence that would have been dented at conceding right before the break.
To be fair, he certainly got it. Hayden Mullins' raking 60-yard pass into the feet of Adam Dawson was taken superbly under control by the winger.
His first touch was excellent, but while his shot was packed with venom, it was smartly save.
The introduction of Zeli Ismail and Jeremy Balmy and their creativity then helped to make inroads on the visitors' back-four.
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