Notts County 1-0 Carlisle United

The sun was shining, the weather was mild, the sky was cloudless today at Meadow Lane. By contrast, the display on the pitch, save for a few bright spells, was overcast and grey, but crucially, Notts County finished the game with three very important points which ensured beaming smiles on the supporters' faces and left the club with a much better outlook for the rest of the season.

Chris Kiwomya, forced to take Julian Kelly's absence into consideration - the full-back is recovering from a calf injury - switched the Notts formation to 3-5-2, slotting Jeff Hughes into the left wing position and shifting Alan Judge to central attacking midfield.

The game began slowly, with a couple of half-chances by Carlisle in the opening exchanges, before Notts threatened in the eleventh minute, but John Cofie lost possession when close to goal.

Francois Zoko, the former Carlisle player involved in the previous move, then set up Judge after beating Frank Simek on the left wing, but the Irishman's chip was caught by keeper Mark Gillespie.

Carlisle had a good chance afterwards, when Gary Liddle blocked Liam Noble's goalbound effort, but afterwards, for a good twenty minutes, both teams were bogged down in midfield and not much happened.

This changed all of a sudden when Cofie picked out Judge, who marauded into the Carlisle penalty box and, catching Gillespie off his line, majestically chipped the ball over the keeper. 1-0, 35 minutes played, the crowd delighted at what they'd just seen.

Neal Bishop threatened five minutes later with a quick breakaway, but couldn't find a player to feed the ball through to. Shortly afterwards, a scramble in the Notts box very nearly led to a Carlisle goal were it not for another great goal-line clearance, this time by Alan Sheehan.

In injury time, Notts nearly doubled their lead, but Zoko couldn't finish a move started by Sheehan, who crossed into the area.

One player who stood out for Carlisle was Lee Miller. Although the majority of the time it was for bad behaviour and baiting the Notts players, he did get a good shot on goal in the 57th minute when a great Bartosz Bialkowski save denied him from six yards out.

Just a few minutes later, Sean O'Hanlon was a dead cert to equalise, but again Bart managed to miraculously keep the shot out, so much so both sets of fans applauded him for his save.

Later on in the game, Notts were under the cosh and needed Bart to bail them out again, James Berrett's fine hit parried behind by the Pole.

The skilled Andre Boucaud, towards the end of the game, unleashed a thunderbolt from 30 yards which smashed against the crossbar and into the crowd, before a fingertip save by Joe Jones and a catch by Notts Joe ensured the ball was back in the keeper's hands promptly. Good honest ball work, no time-wasting and ball-spooning akin to ball boys working for trophy-winning Welsh sides.

The much-maligned Miller finally received his marching orders in the last few minutes, as a headbutt on sub Joss Labadie earnt him a straight red card. His ignominious trudge back to the dressing room was accompanied by the very satisfying chanting of "cheerio, cheerio, cheerio" by the Notts crowd.

Despite some last-ditch Carlisle pressure, Notts were well organised and kept the waves of attacks at bay, and when the final whistle went, it was a cause for celebration as the Magpies earned three desperately needed points, courtesy of the Irish Messi's solitary goal, and managed to keep a clean sheet.

Notts remain tenth on 52 points with a game in hand, eight points off the playoffs, and unbeaten in five with three draws and two wins.