diff --git a/bench_filter_test.go b/bench_filter_test.go
index 38e39f5..44e5917 100644
--- a/bench_filter_test.go
+++ b/bench_filter_test.go
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ package goquery
 
 import (
 	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/andybalholm/cascadia"
 )
 
 func BenchmarkFilter(b *testing.B) {
@@ -40,6 +42,25 @@ func BenchmarkNot(b *testing.B) {
 	}
 }
 
+func BenchmarkNotMatcher(b *testing.B) {
+	var n int
+
+	b.StopTimer()
+	sel := DocW().Find("li")
+	m := cascadia.MustCompile(".toclevel-2")
+	b.StartTimer()
+	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
+		if n == 0 {
+			n = sel.NotMatcher(m).Length()
+		} else {
+			sel.NotMatcher(m)
+		}
+	}
+	if n != 371 {
+		b.Fatalf("want 371, got %d", n)
+	}
+}
+
 func BenchmarkFilterFunction(b *testing.B) {
 	var n int
 
diff --git a/filter.go b/filter.go
index 9138ffb..271f050 100644
--- a/filter.go
+++ b/filter.go
@@ -130,10 +130,14 @@ func winnow(sel *Selection, m Matcher, keep bool) []*html.Node {
 	if keep {
 		return m.Filter(sel.Nodes)
 	}
-	// Use grep
-	return grep(sel, func(i int, s *Selection) bool {
-		return !m.Match(s.Get(0))
-	})
+	// Not path: call Match directly on each node, no Selection wrapper needed
+	result := make([]*html.Node, 0, len(sel.Nodes))
+	for _, n := range sel.Nodes {
+		if !m.Match(n) {
+			result = append(result, n)
+		}
+	}
+	return result
 }
 
 // Filter based on an array of nodes, and the indicator to keep (Filter) or