Russell Hoult made his long-awaited return from injury in last night's Carling Cup defeat at Wigan Athletic, and he declared afterwards: "It's great to be back".

Despite being on the wrong end of a 4-0 scoreline, Hoult was delighted to get 90 important minutes under his belt in what was his first appearance since the final game of last season.

Days after signing a two-year deal in the summer he suffered a stress fracture to his right leg which ruled him out of the majority of pre-season training.

He however was back in action last night to end a frustrating month or so.

"It is good to be back," he said after the game.

"It's a start I suppose. The result was not the best, but it was good to get 90 minutes under my belt.

"I'm feeling ok, although it would be nice to be back at 100% fit! I still have a bit of a way to go to be totally pain-free, but it is something I have to overcome.

"It has been frustrating sitting around watching for the last few weeks.

"All I've been able to do is go to the gym and lift weights for the majority of the time, so it has been nice to step it up lately and work my way back."

Looking back on the defeat, Hoult was keen to focus on the positive side of the defeat.

The experienced shot-stopper has played at the highest level and admitted Notts were always facing a tough task at the JJB against Steve Bruce's men.

He said: "Obviously it was a big step-up for us and there was a big gap in the play.

"To be fair I think the quality was always going to tell - like for the first goal where the lad had half a chance and struck it in the corner.

"Quality will always come to the top when you play the tops teams.

"Despite losing the game we have to focus on the positives from the game and we did pass the ball around well at times.

"We're confident on the ball at the moment playing football, which is completely different to how we were last season that is for sure.

"As long as we can continue to do that things will pick up.

"If we carry on the way we are going against teams in our own division I don't think we'll be very far away at the end of the season."

Remember you can hear Russell's full and exclusive post-match interview on Magpie World right now from last night's game, along with the thoughts of Manager Ian McParland.