Notts County head coach Ian Burchnall felt missed chances proved crucial after their unbeaten run was ended by Bromley.
The Magpies slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Hayes Lane where Jude Arthurs' goal on the stroke of half-time inflicted a first defeat since November.
Notts came close to scoring on three occasions in a decent first-half performance as Callum Roberts was denied twice by Mark Cousins as Ruben Rodrigues also hit the post.
But it was Arthurs who found the breakthrough when he converted from close range after Notts failed to deal with a corner.
And Burchnall felt that the first goal was always going to be pivotal against their promotion rivals.
"Bromley do what they do very well," he said.
"They defend the box, they put bodies in there, they play with a low block and slowed our tempo a lot.
"If you give them something to hang on to, they are very difficult to break down.
"I actually thought we played well in the first half. We came out the traps much better than we have in recent weeks.
"We hit the post and had two off the line. If one of those goes in then we open the game up much more.
"The longer Bromley hold on, we couldn't break them down. We still created chances at the end but we have to be able to take one."
