NOTTS deserve to be ten points better off, says boss Ian McParland.

The Magpies are 15th in League Two with 39 points from 34 games.

But McParland believes they should be challenging in the top half of the table instead of below mid-table, with 12 games left.

He insists some of their performances this season have merited greater reward – and that they have been cruelly blighted by injuries to key players.

He said: "The way we have performed this season we are ten points off where I would like to be.

"We have not managed to progress as much as I would have liked for different reasons.

"We have had injuries, a bit of bad luck at times and when we were playing really well we didn't kill teams off.

"I am sure the people who come and watch us, the sensible people who know football, will think the same as me."

The Magpies ended last season with the worst scoring record in the entire Football League, with just 37 goals in 46 games.

They have already beaten that with 40 goals so far this campaign.

But McParland is still striving to add an even greater cutting-edge to his side for next season in a bid to fire the club's promotion ambitions in League Two.

He is tirelessly trying to improve the Magpies' squad, after already overseeing a massive turnover of players since taking charge of the club in October 2007.

"We have to get that cutting edge into our game and I am working to get that," he added.

"I will never be happy with what I have got.

"I will always be striving to get better, striving to make the team better by bringing in better players.

"You cannot stand still, if it's possible to keep moving forward."

The Magpies have drawn blanks in their last two away games, against Bury and Darlington, ahead of the trip to Shrewsbury.

In both defeats, they lacked any cutting edge.

"You get games like that," said McParland.

"Some times people talk about us not having a shot, or hitting the target.

"You don't get ten, 12 or 15 shots in a game. It would be nice if you did because the odds are you would score one or two of them.

"Sometimes you have to give credit to the other side. It's not because you're not trying, it's that they are doing well to stop you."

McParland has been forced to rebuild his squad at Meadow Lane on a tight budget, while their opponents today have been able to splash £170,000 to land striker Grant Holt from Forest.

"I am not jealous, that's football," said McParland.

"It would be nice to have £150,000 or £200,000 to spend on a player but I am not going to cry about it, and it's not guaranteed to work either.

"At the end of the day you work with what you have got and try to keep progressing."