Carl Dickinson relished his return to the team last weekend and wants to retain his place against Colchester United this weekend.
The defender started the first two games of Kevin Nolan's tenure before losing his place to Arsenal loanee Marc Bola at the start of February.
A brief cameo at Stevenage was his only other appearance under the new manager until last weekend at Wycombe, when the full back returned to the starting line-up and helped Notts keep a second successive clean sheet to record a 1-0 win.
Despite being named on the bench for nine consecutive matches, the former Stoke man says he never lost faith in himself.
"It's hard but if the lads are doing well you can't complain," he admitted. "I just got my head down, worked hard and trained well to ensure I was always ready if I was going to be called upon.
"I believe in my own ability but I had to wait to get my chance. Hopefully I did enough at Wycombe to keep the shirt this weekend.
"I hate sitting on the bench and watching games but it's all about the team and we were doing well so I can't complain. It has been hard but I have not doubted myself."
The defender, who turns 30 on Friday, expects another difficult game against the play-off chasing U's but wants the Magpies to focus on themselves given their impressive record at Meadow Lane since Nolan took charge.
"They've been a bit up and down away from home but they have some good footballers in their team and if they get it right they can be a real threat," said Dickinson.
"They like to get the ball wide early and swing crosses into the box for Chris Porter. We're under no illusions - we know it will be a tough task but with our home form teams are coming to Meadow Lane and respecting what we're doing at the minute.
"It's up to us to not worry about Colchester and just carry on doing what we have been doing at home and start on the front foot. When we have started on the front foot in games we have done well.
"Hopefully I can keep my place on Saturday, we can pick up three points and I could maybe notch a goal as well - that'd be nice!"
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