Brentford 3 - 1 Notts County

Despite all the euphoria generated by Notts County's great three-match winning run against Carlisle, Crewe and Colchester, and all the positivity around the Great Escape campaign, the truth is that today's game away at Brentford was an incredibly tall order.

The Bees are on fine form this season and are expected to earn promotion to the Championship, not to mention the fact that they've managed to get none other than Alan Judge on their books, and we all know what happens when former players face up against their old clubs.

As a result, it should really come as no surprise that Brentford beat us 3-1 today, but there were sore points in that the home side raced into a three-goal lead before we got a consolation, not to mention the sending off of Haydn Hollis which will have repercussions in the remaining few games. And of course, though Judge owes Notts nothing and is a fine player able to make things happen, seeing him score twice against us is a bitter pill to swallow.

Manager Shaun Derry made just one change to his starting XI from the team that won against Colchester, as Nathan Tyson was picked ahead of Jack Grealish.

The Irish Messi caused trouble early on as he broke through on goal after a mistake by Hayden Mullins, but Hollis cleared the ball before any damage could be done, but the on-loan veteran made amends by denying Stuart Dallas not long after.

The Bees were on the front foot during this period, with Dallas and Judge causing no end of trouble for the Notts backline, and things got worse for the away side when Hollis was shown a straight red for a lunge on Clayton Donaldson just after the half-hour mark and gave away a penalty.

The nine outfield Notts men had to stand and watch as Adam Forshaw sent Bartosz Bialkowski the wrong way to put the Bees a goal ahead.

Just before the break came the heartbreaking blow, as Judge, who left Notts for greener pastures at Blackburn Rovers, only to be sent on loan back to League One, made it 2-0 just before the break. The talismanic midfielder collected Alan McCormack's pass and fired home at the near post following a mistake by substitute Dean Leacock.

Judge's second, his fifth goal since joining on loan from Blackburn in January, came after Bialkowski had twice denied Toumani Diagouraga from close range, the Irish prodigy hammering the ball into the net just after the restart to make the scoreline 3-0.

Notts fans were in despair at this grotesque scenario playing itself out - Judge should never have found himself playing against us in the league, he should have been either playing for us or for a higher tier club!

On the plus side, Jimmy Spencer's dry spell came to an end when he scored County's consolation with just seven minutes to go, when Mullins's ball found the youngster who then sent a lob over the away keeper to make the scoreline 3-1.

This victory is Brentford's first in four matches, and moves them six points clear of third place.

Wins for Tranmere, Carlisle and Crewe mean that we now slip back into the League One relegation zone, three points from safety and missing one of our form players for several games after yet another Magpies sending-off.