McParland: Notts deserved so much more

IAN McParland was gutted to be knocked out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at Bradford City.

The Notts County manager felt his much-changed side dominated at Valley Parade, even after being reduced to ten men.

But he said they conceded two poor goals, before losing 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out.

He said: "We deserved to win, I thought we were magnificent in the second half.

"Matty Ritchie cracked one off the bar. It was a great strike, I don't know how it stayed out. I put him on to try to win the game and we deserved to.

"He lit the game up when he came on and we battled hard after we went down to ten men. The lads got together and had a right go.

"We were in front in the final minute but we gave it away. Players have to make the right decisions from the corner.

"It wasn't even a dangerous corner and if we made the right decision it would not have gone in and we would have claimed a deserved win.

"It's a lottery when it comes down to penalties for the lads that stepped up to the plate. It takes a bit of bottle to do it."

McParland blasted referee Andy Hall for sending off Graeme Lee in the second half.

"I thought it was a terrible sending off and some of the bookings were not bookings, I thought the refereeing was shocking," he added.

"Spike (Lee) didn't even move, the lad just fell over. In the end, I wish Bradford good luck. They stuck their penalties away but we could have had them dead and buried, even with ten men.

"It was a proper cup tie and we came up here to win it. I'm happy with the performance, not the result. It's a terrible way to go out, on penalties, especially when we dominated so much."

Ben Davies and Johnnie Jackson both missed the game through injury – and McParland said he is not sure if they will be fit to face Torquay United at Meadow Lane on Sunday.