Kevin Nolan makes instant headway but Notts County must rise from the foot | Jeremy Alexander

A vital point and rare clean sheet may have felt like a victory of sorts at Meadow Lane, but with a new broom in the boardroom sweeping in hope, their fledgling manager will need fortune to favour expectations

Kevin Nolan, appointed on Thursday, was all but anointed on Saturday. Notts County’s manager had arrived at Meadow Lane the day after Alan Hardy’s takeover from Ray Trew was completed and their first game in charge was the lunchtime derby at home to the Stags of Mansfield. After 10 successive league defeats County were the ones in a rut and the goalless draw was a triumph, their first clean sheet since October.

Two hours later Cheltenham’s defeat of Accrington Stanley sent the world’s oldest football league club below the relegation line in League Two but Nolan had seen reassurance enough to justify his pre-match excitement. “I’m really happy that I’m here,” he had said, “and can’t wait to sink my teeth into it.” Afterwards he was “delighted” with the team against a side who had won their previous three games. “We competed from start to finish. I had a chance to work with the players for an hour on Friday and it seems they took it all on board. It proved we are good enough to get results and start climbing the table.”

Related: Hartlepool United manager Craig Hignett leaves club by mutual consent

It helped perhaps to have Alan Smith, a former team-mate at Newcastle, as assistant. He had taken charge for one match after Trew completed his reign by sacking John Sheridan. Trew got through 11 managers in seven cheerless years, one of them, Shaun Derry, still appearing on Soccerbase as a County player despite managing Cambridge since November 2015. Smith, still playing, and Nolan, available when Hardy clears the debts which have led to a transfer embargo, suggest tough organisation on and off the field. On Saturday the captain, Michael O’Connor, and Rob Milsom gave the back four, in which Richard Duffy stood out, a security that has evidently been lacking.

Hardy, locally born and a County fan, is well known in the city and has declared higher ambitions. Founder of a thriving office fit-out company and owner of Nottinghamshire Golf and Country Club, he said: “There is no reason why we can’t be as big as Forest.” At the present rate of striking Forest, who also drew goallessly, may meet them half way; they remain in hands their fans would rather they were out of. The city’s two clubs were last in the same division, the second tier, in 1994.

The new owner’s entrepreneurial instinct and identity with fans offered free pies on Saturday to the first 2,000 to turn up. Eventually 11,328 did, including Mansfield’s 3,485 – a season’s best by 3,316 without challenging the record set by Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Hardy has stated as a priority “finding an area we can call our own training ground and academy. That is one of the key deliverables to unlock the success,” he said. On the field the key deliverables were elusive. Just after half-time a corner taken short led to a shot from O’Connor that took only a slight deflection and flew narrowly wide. But that was as close as they went, for all the scampering of Adam Campbell and wide possibilities of Jonathan Forte. The leggy, long-suffering Jon Stead got little protection from two well-armed stranglers at centre-back no doubt aware of his sparkling unpicking of Chelsea in the FA Cup two years ago with Bradford City. He has 10 goals this season.

Mansfield, probably most settled of the county’s three league clubs over the past few years, were hardly more creative in a game where commitment left little room for quality. In the first half Ben Whiteman’s shot squirted in an unexpected loop that had Adam Collin back-pedalling to tip away. In the second a rare indecision in County’s defence admitted a cross that Yoann Arquin poked impossibly wide of a gaping goal. But the occasion always seemed more about County, who hold a league record for relegations (16) and promotions (13) and cannot afford another of the former before one of the latter. Last year they enjoyed only three home league wins.

Nolan’s first foray into management, a year ago at Leyton Orient, fell foul of another duff owner. Saturday was not easy. The minute’s applause for Graham Taylor was a reminder of absolute decency in and out of the dugout and Nolan, acknowledging later “a brilliant reception with hairs rising on the back of his neck”, apologised for being “a bit emotional” without mentioning his grandfather, too, had just died.

The Stags’ Steve Evans, charmless as ever, could not have struck a starker contrast until the fourth official called the referee to intervene. It was a disgrace to Taylor’s name. But after Collin’s last-minute reflex save to divert a deflection the majority left smiling. The mood at last was too good to be Trew.

• John Sheridan’s dismissal by Notts County gave Oldham Athletic, bottom of League One, the chance to engage him as manager for a fifth time, the first two as caretaker while still playing. What does this say about the club’s judgment? Or Sheridan’s? At least he kicked off with a win, 1-0 at home to Gillingham, in keeping with his record of more victories than defeats for them. It got them off the foot of the table.

• Bury, after a run of 20 matches in all competitions since September without a win and with 16 of them defeats, sprang back with a vengeance on Saturday. Since Chris Brass took over in mid-November most of their games have been against top-half League One clubs but Peterborough were no different in that and they were put to the sword 5-0 after scoring first. James Vaughan, threatening for some years to be a prolific striker, got four in 21 first-half minutes and hit the post in the second half.

• Sooner or later records go, like managers. Brighton’s positive run stretched even further back than Bury’s negative one – to 10 September in the Championship, 20 September in the EFL Cup – until Preston beat them 2-0 at Deepdale on Saturday. The interesting thing then is to see the response. Their next match is against Sheffield Wednesday on Friday at the Amex Stadium, where those previous two defeats took place. Wednesday are unbeaten in six, with four wins. Who would be the favourites?

• In League Two Paul Tisdale continues to justify Exeter City’s faith in the unconventional policy of not reacting too quickly in face of a run of bad results. Many clubs might have fingered the safety catch if the first 17 matches produced 16 points. The next eight have added 20 and the Grecians, far from staring at the National League, are looking at the play-offs. Sometimes backing is better than sacking.