Notts County 2-0 Tranmere Rovers

Notts County finally, after seven games and six weeks of hurt, managed to secure the first win of the season with a convincing win against Tranmere Rovers. The first goal came within the first five minutes of the game, as Joss Labadie's header drew first blood. After an exciting game of football in which Jack Grealish showed off his stellar talent and Labadie pulled the strings in midfield Andrea Pirlo-style, the victory was all but secured with substitute Marcus Haber's tap-in. In all fairness, Tranmere were lucky to leave Nottingham having conceded just two goals!

Chris Kiwomya reshuffled his team once again after the horrendous 5-1 defeat away at Leyton Orient, playing a 4-5-1 formation with Danny Haynes leading the line.

Notts began the game very well, with Haynes getting an early shot and some good link up play between him, Labadie and McGregor.

That was a precursor to better things, though, as, following on from a Notts free-kick, Alan Sheehan got a cross in, which fell to Haynes' head. His knock on was then headed in by Labadie for Notts County's first lead since the Peterborough game in August. 1-0 Magpies.

Notts would continue to assert their dominance over Tranmere for the next half hour or so. On 12 minutes, McGregor set up Haynes after a one-two, which was blocked, while Boucaud had a shot on 22. Shortly afterwards, Sheehan got his head on the ball which went just over.

Grealish was ever-present in the first half, constantly troubling the Tranmere defenders in the box, and very nearly got on the scoresheet several times, as well as winning several corners.

Tranmere weren't totally anodyne, as they weighed in with several chances of their own. on 32 minutes, Akpa Akpro's shot was wide, which was just as well as it should have been stopped for handball. Moments later, Max Power's shot from 30 yards was saved by Bartosz Bialkowski. And in the final minute of the half, Evan Horwood had a free header, but Bart was again at hand to stop it.

The second half picked up from where the first left off, the brilliant Grealish firing just over from outside the box on 47, while the equally brilliant Boucaud, pulling the strings in midfield, threated the ball through to Haynes, whose shot was saved and rebounded against the post.

Akpa Akpro was undoubtedly the dangerman for Tranmere, his volley early on in the second half troubling Bart and his header smashing against the woodwork on 74 minutes.

On 80 minutes, things got twice as good for Notts, as Mustapha Dumbuya's ball fell to substitute Marcus Haber, who tapped it in to double the home side's lead.

Even with the victory secured, County had more chances to make the scoreline a thorough drubbing, Sheehan and Haber coming very close in the dying stages.

Finally, the whistle was blown, and the Notts fans who had kept the faith - just over 3,500 - jumped for joy and relief after being thoroughly entertained and seeing their team quadruple their total points tally in the space of the afternoon.

Final score: Notts 2 - 0 Tranmere.