Match report: Notts County 0 Dagenham 3

IT WAS certainly not a lap of honour, more like a walk of shame as the Notts County players trudged round the pitch to token applause and boos from the home supporters after the final whistle.

Well, the few Magpies' fans still inside Meadow Lane anyway. Most of them had already left, clearly disappointed, disgusted even, at another defeat on home soil, the 11th this season.

Who on earth thought it was an appropriate way to bring the curtain down on County's home campaign? Boss Ian McParland certainly didn't by the look of it; he exited straight down the tunnel.

So what if it's tradition, an annual act of appreciation – it was entirely inappropriate and embarrassing.

The only player who enjoyed a rousing, rapturous, send-off was retiring defender Michael Johnson.

In fact, his substitution in the second half was the most magnificent moment in the game as he left the pitch for the final time, 17 years after making his home debut for the club against Coventry City in the old First Division, to a standing ovation. It was spine-tingling stuff.

The fans love him, not only because of his whole-hearted way of playing, but because he was one of their own; a boy from Clifton who came through the club's youth ranks, went to play on the biggest stage of English Football and, with beautiful symmetry, came back to end his career where it all began.

With the likes of Dean Yates, Tommy Johnson and Mark Draper already retired, Johnson was the last link to a better time in the club's history. How the supporters will miss him. How Notts will miss him too.

Still, without him the Magpies will be under severe pressure to win games from day one next season and ultimately challenge a lot higher in League Two, given the way their season has ended so abysmally, with nine defeats in the last 12 games, and five in their last five games – their worst run since McParland took charge in October 2007.

Unbelievably too, they will now certainly end the season with fewer points than last season when they narrowly avoided relegation out of the Football League, even with an unlikely victory at Wycombe Wanderers in their final game.

They were condemned to their latest defeat by three glorious goals from Dagenham, although McParland was rightly unhappy once again with his side's defending. Daggers' winger Sam Saunders should never have been allowed to cut inside from the right wing so easily and launch a luscious, long-range left-footed effort past Kevin Pilkington into the top far corner of the net.

He should have been tackled. Instead he went unchallenged, and Notts were behind.

Then, on the stroke of half-time the Magpies switched off as the visitors took a quick free-kick and Matt Ritchie thundered an equally impressive effort past Pilkington and into the top corner from a ridiculous range, fully 30 yards, maybe even more.

Once again the finish was flawless; once again the defending, or rather the lack of it, was flawed.

The Magpies created chances in the first half. But it was the same old story; they didn't take any of them.

Indeed, they could have taken the lead when Myles Weston pounced on a defensive mistake from Daggers' captain Mark Arber.

The winger latched on to the loose ball inside the box and laid it across the six-yard box but it was behind Delroy Facey and too far in front of Richard Butcher and right-back Danny Foster cleared.

Captain John Thompson also sent a free header from inside the penalty area over the crossbar, when he should have hit the target.

At 2-0, however, it was all over. Notts have no resilience right now. If they fall behind, their heads drop and they lose.

Substitute Ben Fairclough provided a much-needed spark in attack in the second half and caused the Dagenham defence a few problems with his pace.

He was quickly involved in the opening minutes, in fact, beating Arber down the left and racing into the box. He cut a cross back in the direction of Facey but he was surrounded by defenders and Dagenham cleared confidently.

The closest County went to scoring in the second half was when defender Mike Edwards was denied from point-blank range.

It was Ritchie who had the final say with his second goal in the dying minutes. Again, it was a wonderful finish from the young winger, on loan with the Daggers from Portsmouth, as he drilled a low shot past Pilkington and just inside his right-hand post from the edge of the box.

At the start of the year, Notts looked like they had turned a corner at Meadow Lane with four wins in five games, against Exeter, Port Vale, Barnet and Bradford.

But the 3-1 win against the Bantams on February 28 proved their last home win of the season, with Dagenham inflicting the 11th home defeat of the season on them.

Six wins in 23 league games on home soil is a record they will need to improve next season. If they do, it might be more appropriate for them to do a lap of the Meadow Lane pitch.