Every team has 'one of those days' during the course of any season, and Notts County endured one of those in their first defeat of the National League season against Dorking Wanderers on Saturday.
After dominating large parts of their encounter with Marc White's side, the Magpies conceded twice in injury time, with James McShane completing his hat-trick to round off a disappointing afternoon for the visitors.
The Wanderers number 11 had given the hosts the lead at Meadowbank Park in just after the ten-minute mark, capitalising on a mistake from Sam Slocombe to lift the ball over the Notts 'keeper.
READ MORE: Luke Williams forced to rue missed opportunities following Dorking Wanderers defeat
However, Luke Williams side responded five minutes into the second half through Cedwyn Scott, doing well to create space and fire an effort beyond Dan Lincoln to give his side the goal their performance merited.
But after a number of missed opportunities and multiple throws of the dice, Notts were caught out twice late on with McShane finishing twice from close range to net his seventh and eighth goals of the season and make it back-to-back wins for the newly promoted side.
Following the defeat, here is five things we learned from Notts' encounter with Dorking Wanderers.
Defensive lapses prove costly
As we saw from last season and in parts of this campaign, lapses in concentration proved costly as Dorking pounced late on to steal all three points.
Whilst the defence was solid, compact and aerially dominant throughout, all it takes is a second to switch off at this level and you will be punished, and unfortunately the Magpies were caught out in injury time in search of a winner.
The opening goal is completely avoidable. On a 3G surface, the ball tends to bounce that little bit higher, so Notts' style of play was instantly hindered in terms of playing out from the back. At a time when the ball should have gone long, Sam Slocombe opted to play a dangerous ball into midfield, instantly putting Matty Palmer under pressure which McShane was able to capitalise on.
And after dominating proceedings in the second half, Wanderers still looked dangerous on the counterattack and did extremely well to soak up the pressure from Williams' side.
Ultimately, their defending was rewarded with the visitors pushing for the equaliser. Somewhat fortunate, McShane was able to capitalise on his deflected effort that grazed the crossbar, reacting quickest to tap the ball home with the Notts defence on their toes.
And the Magpies' misery was compounded five minutes into injury time, with Slocombe parrying Ryan Seager's initial effort into the path of McShane to complete his hat-trick and put the game beyond Williams' side.
Missed opportunities punished
We have seen in recent weeks similar opportunities go unpunished, with the game against Solihull Moors coming to mind after dominating the game and only coming away with one goal.
However, this time Notts were forced to rue those missed chances. With 19 attempts on goal, 11 of those were on target which shows Williams' side are hitting the target, but were met with Dan Lincoln, who was in inspired form at Meadowbank Park.
Despite having the top scorer in the league, Macaulay Langstaff was kept relatively quiet throughout, doing well with the half chances that were created for him.
Geraldo Bajrami and Adam Chicksen also had good opportunities to add to Notts' tally, both denied by excellent saves from the Wanderers 'keeper.
We saw in the game against Dagenham and Redbridge and Halifax Town how ruthless the Magpies can be in front of goal, but yesterday was just one of those days when everything was in favour of the home side, and that lack of clinical nature eventually cost Notts their unbeaten start to the season.
The right tactical changes?
In search of the winning goal, Williams made two attacking changes, one enforced in Quevin Castro replacing Scott after the striker was struggling with cramp, whilst Kairo Mitchell replaced Jim O'Brien for the final 20 minutes.
Those changes allowed Notts to dominate the possession in the final third and create a number of chances to win the game, but left them short in midfield, with Matty Palmer left on his own in midfield with Ruben Rodrigues and Castro playing in that more advanced midfield role.
With that attacking personnel, Dorking were able to expose that area of the pitch when breaking out from defence which eventually led to their two goals in injury time.
It is understandable that Williams felt the momentum was shifting towards his side with the number of chances they were creating, but that balance in midfield was still needed and eventually cost Notts in their search for the winner.
On a number of occasions this season, the Notts boss has got his substitutions spot on with the likes of Sam Austin and Mitchell coming on to make an impact late on in games, but he won't get them right every time and unfortunately for the Magpies, those changes potentially affected the result of the game.
Castro looked lively during his cameo appearance, but Mitchell was often passive in the build-up and was dominated by Dan Gallagher who was tremendous all afternoon for Dorking.
The art of goalkeeping
It was two contrasting performances in either net yesterday, with Dan Lincoln producing a number of important saves to deny the Magpies from scoring at least four or five of their chances.
Whilst in the Notts goal, it was an afternoon to forget for Sam Slocombe who will be the first to admit he could have done better for two of the three Dorking goals.
The Wanderers 'keeper had one of those days that goalkeepers have every so often in their career, with many scratching their heads as to how he made a number of those saves.
The standout saves that come to mind were from O'Brien's swirling effort which he managed to tip over the bar after an outstanding piece of play from Rodrigues, before doing well to tip Chicksen's powerful shot over his net late on with the score at 1-1.
It looked as though Slocombe had recovered from his early error, taking up some good positions on the edge of his penalty area to sweep up Dorking's balls over the top to James McShane and Harry Ottoway, but in my opinion should do better with McShane's third goal and look to hold the initial effort.
The second goal is a freak goal and Slocombe was unlucky to see the ball ricochet back into the path of McShane and could ask questions of his defence as to why there wasn't anyone close to the Dorking number 11.
Not time to panic
With results around them going in their favour, it was a chance for Notts to sit top of the table ahead of their trip to York City next weekend, but instead lie in fourth place, three points away from leaders Chesterfield.
But after just one defeat in just nine games under a new manager, with four consecutive wins and two clean sheets in the lead up to their defeat at Meadowbank Park, I think Notts fans can be happy with the start made under Williams.
And as an unbeaten run comes to an end, it is time for the Magpies to embark on another one of those, with a full week to regroup and refocus before their trip to the LNER Community Stadium.
Notts had a number of opportunities to put the game beyond their opponents yesterday and were arguably the better side in terms of possession and creating chances, but every side in this league will have a bump in the road, let's just hope the Magpies won't have too many more this season.
