Notts County 0-1 Stevenage

Four league games into the season, Notts County still have just one point to their name, after a toothless, substandard performance against Stevenage FC at Meadow Lane. In a match where both teams struggled to gain a foothold into the game, the Hertfordshire side pounced on a defensive error to score in the final minute, courtesy of James Dunne. As has been mentioned here before, a curious refereeing performance hindered Notts on occasions, but they should have come away with at least a point against lacklustre opposition. The Magpies recalled Gary Liddle to defence, after his three-match ban for his sending off in the season opener against Sheffield United.

The side was slightly weakened, however, as Alan Sheehan, Dean Leacock and Danny Haynes were all missing. Greg Tempest, Manny Smith and Adam Coombes were in the starting XI in their place.

The first meaningful action of the game involved the Stevenage goalkeeper, Chris Day, handling the ball outside his box after a long punt by Notts keeper Bartosz Bialkowski which was within the reaches of Coombes. Normally warranting a red card, Day wasn't punished.

Not long after, David Bell's free kick caused havoc in the Stevenage box, pinballing into the path of Liddle, but his volley wasn't a problem for Day.

On twenty minutes, Tempest's good cross fell to Yoann Arquin, but he failed to control and Day once again saved.

The covering left-back provided another good cross on 25, but Roarie Deacon did well to flick it away.

On 33 minutes, Stevenage finally threatened, Robin Shroot firing a 30-yard shot which was easily saved. Four minutes later, Bart was finally called into action, Darius Charles' curled shot being acrobatically palmed away. Up until then, Notts had been huffing and puffing, without quite blowing the defences away.

Just before the interval, Callum McGregor and Shroot, for Notts and Stevenage respectively, fired over the opposition crossbars.

After the fifteen-minute break, in which yours truly checked the football results to see whether his accumulators were holding up, a cigarette in the designated smoking area and the purchase and consumption of one of the very tasty Cornish pasties from the catering section, the game restarted with Notts nearly taking the lead, a Liddle header nearly falling to Coombes, before Jon Ashton headed over his own crossbar and to safety.

After a couple more half-chances, Charles split the Notts defence wide open, allowing Shroot a one-on-one opportunity against Bart. However, he and Liddle did enough to thwart the danger.

On 72, Jeremy Balmy made his debut, in place of Adam Coombes.

The referee, regularly calling fouls on seemingly innocuous Notts challenges while letting Stevenage tugs and tackles slide, kept incurring the ire of the home fans in the Kop, the chants reaching a nadir when Mark Fotheringham was booked for dissent.

Notts continued to push for a goal, but the vast majority of play was conducted through the wings as opposed to midfield, and virtually every cross was deflected away from goal by the Stevenage defence. Balmy, in particular, may have not been ready yet for the first team, for he made several mistakes in the final third.

Stevenage are known for being a bogey team for Notts in recent years, and sadly for the sanity and blood pressure of the home faithful, this trend continued when Shroot's ball took a deflection and fell to Dunne, who converted from close range in the final minute.

One of the most frustrating performances I have seen from Notts, there are things which need to be addressed urgently, because I do not wish to be supporting a League Two team next season. More cohesion is needed, less focus on single players - Bell was the key man today, and even though he was good, we cannot rely on one player all the time - and more care and thought needs to go in the substitutions, because today they were not very well executed.