Salford assistant manager Alex Bruce admitted his ears were left ringing by Karl Robinson during their 2-1 victory over Notts County.

The Ammies manager was sitting in the stands with director of football Ryan Giggs and Bruce’s dad, Steve, as he served a one-match touchline suspension at Meadow Lane.

“My ears are ringing, I have to say,” Bruce explained at full-time on how he communicated with Robinson in the stands. “I had a headpiece in and my brain is absolutely frazzled!”

Conor McAleny’s goals either side of half-time were enough to secure all three points for the visitors, having seen Dan Crowley’s strike peg them back nine minutes after the restart.

It moves Salford 14 points clear of the bottom two with six games of their season remaining, with Bruce hopeful their win over the Magpies can be used for next campaign.

“When you get to this stage of the season, you always want to have something to play for but I believe in sport. It is all about momentum and we want to win as many games as we can,” he said.

“We want to take that into next season and hit the ground running with how we need to go on.”

For County boss Stuart Maynard, it is the fifth straight home defeat since arriving at Meadow Lane in January, with the Magpies failing to win in front of their home supporters this term.

Maynard believed his side were the better team for the entirety of the contest, but described the way in which his side conceded the late winner as ‘schoolboy’ in his post-match assessment.

“I thought we were the better team in the first half,” Maynard explained.

“We had to tactically change it so we could get through the first phase quicker. I thought we created the big moments within the game, but to concede a goal like we did at the end is kind of schoolboy football.

“We shouldn’t lose that game, that’s a game that we should come away from not losing rather than now, we have dropped another three points that we didn’t need to drop.”

A win over Bradford in midweek reignited their faint play-off hopes despite their recent wretched form, but the defeat seems to have extinguished those aspirations almost instantly.

Maynard’s side are currently eight points away from the top seven ahead of the Easter weekend fixtures, but the Magpies boss insisted that until it is mathematically impossible to reach the play-offs, he will still believe.

“We keep going one game at a time, and while it is still mathematically there for us we have to keep fighting and keep trying to pick up as many points as we can,” he said.