The Magpies are desperate to turn around the current run of form to repay the manager, says Jamal Campbell-Ryce.
Following an excellent start to the season, December proved to be a tricky month for Notts but the squad remains optimistic.
With a game in hand over sixth-placed MK Dons, County are only six points adrift of the Play-Off places and a win over Portsmouth this weekend can get the team back into the thick of the promotion race.
Campbell-Ryce has appreciated the way that boss Keith Curle has handled the dressing room so far this term and is determined to make the vision of Championship football a reality.
“He’s 100 per cent the best gaffer that I’ve played under, without a shadow of a doubt,” he said.
“I’m not just saying that because I’m here, he just gives all the players the freedom to go out there and express themselves.
“If you do something wrong, he doesn’t get on at you, he just leaves you as he knows what it was like as a player.
“We do want to do it for the gaffer and for the coaching staff, because they do give us that license.
“They don’t put us under any major pressure but at the moment we’re not doing that.
“I feel for him and it’s only us that can address that.”
How does the team deal with the current form? The winger believes that it may be time for the players to get nasty with one another.
He explained: “I think we’ve just got to be more aggressive.
“We’ve got a great bunch of lads but maybe are we too nice?
“I just think that we’ve got to get horrible with each other, get a reaction out of each other and do it that way.
“We’ve got to start and as you can see now the pitches aren’t the best to play on but that shouldn’t stop us, we can still handle a football.
“We’ve got to earn the right first to play, stop leaking goals and start doing what we did at the start of the season.”
Notts are next in action on Saturday afternoon, when the team travels to Fratton Park for the npower League 1 clash with Portsmouth (3pm kick-off).
You can listen to the match on Magpie Player.