Noble sees red as Notts pegged back by Stanley

Notts County’s wait for a home win this season continues after Accrington Stanley showed Meadow Lane exactly who they are when they scored a 90th-minute equaliser to nick a 1-1 draw.

The Magpies started off well with Jon Stead having two early efforts blocked while Seamus Conneely had a looping strike deflected wide for Stanley all in the opening two minutes.

Ricardo Moniz’s charges almost opened the scoring in the 18th minute when lively Graham Burke’s long-range strike cannoned off the crossbar and fell to Genaro Snijders, who sliced the rebound over the bar.

Josh Windass then fired a 20-yard free kick straight to Roy Carroll, while Stanley Aborah’s tackle on Matt Crooks 35 minutes in led to the Ghanaian-Belgian being shown a yellow card.

The visitors came close to breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half time when Piero Mingoia raced clean through on goal, but Carroll denied him with his legs. At the other end, Noble’s effort on the stroke of half time was tipped over by goalkeeper Jason Mooney.

Following the restart, the Stanley stopper denied Campbell with his legs after the winger latched onto a looping ball over the top on 49 minutes, while on the hour, Snijders raced through on goal but was also thwarted.

Notts kept the pressure on and came close midway through the second half through Burke’s troubling cross, which was punched away, and Noble’s 20-yard free kick, which flew just wide.

In the 76th minute it looked like the hosts had done enough when a cross from Noble was emphatically headed home by Burke from just a few yards out.

Sadly it wasn’t to be, as Noble was dismissed with three minutes left for a challenge on Windass that took the player out and was deemed to have an intent to stamp.

In the 90th minute Stanley clawed back their equaliser when Sean McConville’s corner bobbled around the area before being finished off by Matt Crooks.

It could have been worse for Notts as Terry Gornell and Mingoia came close in injury-time for the visitors, but ultimately the final whistle signalled a sharing of the spoils, with Notts having to take yet another red card and subsequent match suspension into account as well as a loss of two points and a poor patch of form.

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