Following four wins in a row during a hectic schedule, Steve Cotterill has given his team a well earned few days rest.

Because of a number of postponements over the Christmas period, the Magpies have found themselves playing twice almost every week.

Despite this, they have continued to put in fully committed displays and find themselves on the verge of breaking into the top three.

Notts' promotion hopes were given a massive boost last night as they leapfrogged Chesterfield by claiming a 1-0 win over their local rivals.

Cotterill hailed his squad for their determination since his arrival at the club.

He said: We've just had four games in 11 days and those players have been nothing short of magnificent.

"When you become successful in this country, like they have been before I came here with the FA Cup run, they're almost penalised with the amount of games they have to play.

"We've been using the same core and we're probably working off 13 or 14 players.

"I've thanked them for how they've welcomed me through the door by putting those kind of efforts in.

"It's amazing what these wins do for your mood and that's why I've thanked the boys for how they've been with me.

"Everybody's been first class from the moment that I walked through the door.

"We're going to shut them down now and we'll be seeing them on Saturday and try to treat that as a Thursday, like a normal week for the game on Monday."