Notts County 1 - 1 Bristol City

Notts County rode out a tempestuous, bad-tempered and badly refereed match to earn a draw against struggling Bristol City. Playing in front of a bumper crowd at Meadow Lane, the Magpies fell behind to a penalty at the end of the first half, awarded under bizarre circumstances and converted by City captain Sam Baldock. However, referee Charles Breakspear, officiating his first Football League match, then gave Notts a penalty at the end of the second half, which Alan Sheehan struck down the middle to make it 1-1.

The game would end this way, though Notts will be sweating on the fitness of Gary Liddle and Callum Ball, who suffered injuries at the hands (and feet) of the overly aggressive opposition.

Manager Shaun Derry named an unchanged first team for the first time since taking charge of Notts. The bench had a few changes, as veteran keeper Kevin Pilkington replaced the injured Fabian Spiess and Haydn Hollis made way for Greg Tempest.

The atmosphere in the ground was electrifying, given the higher than usual turnout and the return to the Lane of Steve Cotterill, our League Two-winning manager.

Notts began the game in lively fashion, though Bristol had the first shot, courtesy of Jay Emmanuel-Thomas's break and, subsequently, Bobby Reid's shot from outside the box on five minutes. Bartosz Bialkowski was right on it, however.

A flurry of activity came on the quarter-hour mark, as the lively Jamal Campbell-Ryce sent a fantastic ball to Ball. The striker couldn't hit it goalwards, but it then fell to Callum McGregor. His effort blocked, the sphere fell again to JCR, whose effort on the right hand side of the box was, however, high and wide.

On the half hour mark, a crunching challenge from Greg Cunningham on Gary Liddle saw the Notts lynchpin crumble to the ground. The referee, amazingly, didn't see fit to punish the Bristol player, as Liddle was forced to make way for Mark Fotheringham.

Cunningham very nearly added insult to injury a minute later, but his header was saved by Bart. The Pole was on hand to keep out a low Baldock shot too.

On 38, Emmanuel-Thomas escaped the offside trap and came close to scoring, but Bart made an excellent save to deny the 15-goal hitman. Kieron Freeman then made a crucial goal line clearance to keep out his follow-up.

The referee then really came into his own when he decided to give a penalty for a minor altercation involding Dean Leacock and Aden Flint. After skipper Baldock converted from six yards, he then booked the Notts defender, much to the ire of the Notts faithful who were getting increasingly incensed with the farce.

The first half didn't actually end until around 4pm, because Callum Ball was then victim of another horrendous tackle, the third in the first half alone by the away team (Jack Grealish was brought down just a few minutes earlier by Louis Carey but was alright). Ball sadly had to be stretchered off after taking a blow to the head, such was the extent of his injury. Ronan Murray came on in his place.

The half time break was an exercise in letting off steam for the majority of the Notts fans, outraged at an absolute fiasco of a first half.

Things didn't get better at the start of the second half, as Bristol carried on their thuggish, aggressive play. On 53, Alan Sheehan's quick free kick saw McGregor curl a shot inches wide. Another penalty call was then waved away as Murray was fouled, the referee judging the tackle in the box not to be worthy of punishment.

On 53, Alan Sheehan's quick free kick saw McGregor curl a shot inches wide. Another penalty call was then waved away as Murray was fouled, the referee judging the tackle in the box not to be worthy of punishment.

A double effort from McGregor just after the hour invigorated the increasingly frantic and agitated Notts fans, the young Scot firing just over, then just wide on 63.

On 68, Bart made another great save against Emmanuel-Thomas, whose right-footed shot from outside the box was saved following a good diagonal ball from Reid.

The fans were eager for Enoch Showunmi to come on, in a bid to give the Bristol defence some grief, and their wish came true as the big frontman came on in the 77th minute.

McGregor then came agonisingly close once again with five minutes to spare, but his shot, following a cheeky backheel from Grealish, was just the wrong side of the bottom left corner.

Notts would earn redemption with just a few minutes to spare, as they were awarded a penalty following an infringement by Marvin Elliott. The celebrations as Sheehan converted to earn his team the draw were pure catharsis.

It could have actually ended perfectly for the Magpies as Showunmi was one-on-one right at the death, but unfortunately his good effort struck the Bristol post and bounced out.

That would prove to be the last action of the game, and perfect though it may have been, the Notts were more than happy to have claimed a rightful point after a game laden with aggression and incompetence.