Paterson fumes over Notts County's red card record
Notts County are among four clubs to have received five red cards in League Two this season alongside Barnet, Barrow and Bristol Rovers
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Head coach Martin Paterson fumed that Notts County's growing tally of red cards has hurt their bid for promotion from League Two.
Oliver Norburn was sent off in the 48th minute of Tuesday's 3-0 defeat at Oldham, with his dismissal for a second bookable offence coming when they were still only 1-0 down.
It was also only the second game back for Norburn after he was sent off for throwing a boot away in Notts' defeat by Chesterfield.
It was the fifth time Notts have finished a man down in League Two this season, with the past three dismissals coming in the Magpies' past three defeats.
"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," Paterson told BBC Radio Nottingham.
"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."
Notts had the chance to move back into the automatic promotion spots on their trip to Oldham, but their fourth defeat in eight games left them fourth in the table and two points adrift of the top three.
Paterson said the timing of Norburn's sending off was particularly difficult to deal with after making adjustments at half-time to try find a way back into the game.
"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."
Meanwhile, Paterson also confirmed that defender Rod McDonald is likely out for the rest of the season after suffering a muscle injury in Saturday's 5-2 win against Cheltenham.
"He's had a scan and it's going to be weeks, and we'll do well to see Rod again this season," Paterson said.
