Kevin Nolan rued sloppiness at both ends of the pitch following Notts’ 3-2 defeat away to Cambridge United.
Barry Corr’s stoppage-time header from a corner consigned County to their first loss of the season but it could have been so different had Kane Hemmings hit the target moments earlier.
And manager Nolan says both his attacking and defensive players needed to do more.
“When you miss the kind of chances we did it’s always going to be tough but when you give goals away like that you get punished” said Nolan.
“I’m bitterly disappointed, particularly to concede from a set piece because it was just a matter of switching off.
“We don’t get freebies like that so we can’t afford to give them away.”
Nolan had been pleased with the strength his side showed to level the game through Richard Duffy after Ade Azeez had put the hosts 2-1 up, and felt Notts should have won the contest from there.
“We kept on in there and showed great character to come back from 2-1 down,” he added.
“Then we dominated. We put them under pressure and looked like we would be the ones to go on and win the game.
“If Kane’s effort goes in at 2-2 we’d have all been delighted but we missed chances and it’s come back to bite us in a big way.”
Enzio Boldewijn’s first-half wonder-strike had opened the scoring and the gaffer says that was worthy of winning the game.
He explained: “Strikes like that deserve to win you a match, or at least earn you a point.
“We don’t like losing games at all but certainly not in the manner we did today, so we need to improve quickly.
“We’ll show the players the footage so they see how easy we made it for them, and then we have to move on because we’re back in action on Tuesday and then Friday so there’s no time to sulk.”