Notts County 4-1 Bury

The way Notts's games have panned out recently, the club may consider selling tickets for just the second half. Joking aside, another game of two halves, this time on a Friday evening in front of the Sky Sports cameras, saw Notts play disappointingly and concede in the first 45, before a scintillating second-half display, aided by some lacklustre defending, saw Notts tear Bury apart and score four goals to give the Magpies faithful a great start to the weekend. Chris Kiwomya played a 4-4-2 formation against the Shakers.

Replacing Jeff Hughes and Jacob Blyth with Julian Kelly and Yoann Arquin, a tame opening period saw Notts play cautiously and in their own half, before Jamal Campbell Ryce, on fourteen minutes, threaded a ball to Kelly, whose cross was just too high for Arquin.

The following ten minutes saw Notts assert themselves over Bury, but on 24 minutes, Notts found themselves behind after some hesitant defending was seized upon by Steven Schumacher. The midfielder intercepted Kelly's poor pass and fired a fine shot inside the right hand post past Bartosz Bialkowski.

Not long after, Arquin's attempt was nervously spilled behind by Bury keeper Trevor Carson for a corner, but on the whole, Notts struggled to trouble him much more than that in the first half. There were many instances where the ball would be practically gifted to the opposition with a pass or cross to nobody in particular.

The Notts fans soon voiced their bemusement, and by the half time whistle, after Bury had several more dangerous chances, the boos rang out. Notts were haphazard and shapeless.

Nevertheless, the Notts fans had a quiet sense of confidence that the second half would bring a dramatic change in performance and possibly result.

However, no fan would have foreseen just what was to come.

Kimowya made one change, Francois Zoko coming on for Arquin. Bury started the second half as they finished the first half, confidently and dangerously. David Worrall and Nicky Ajose testing Bialkowski.

However, Notts looked to be playing with more awareness and confidence, and just before the hour, the dangerous John Cofie threaded a pass through to Kelly, who cut inside Ajose and fired into the net, aided by a Joe Skarz deflection.

Buoyed and ecstatic at having pulled one back, the Notts fans celebrated raucously, although the cheers turned to boos as Kelly was booked for his celebration.

Meadow Lane only had to wait about more three minutes before Notts took the lead, as Andre Boucaud's chipped pass was misjudged by Ashley Eastham and Francois Zoko seized on the loose ball to fire into the bottom corner.

The shellshocked Shakers tried desperately to retake a foothold back into the game, but a hopeful attempt by Schumacher was thwarted by Bialkowski.

Now dominant, Notts soon added a third, as another great ball from Boucaud was poorly headed by former loanee Eastham, and Zoko, the substitute, beat Carson and tapped the ball into an empty net.

The fans were truly loving it, and empowered by the increasing volume of the crowd, the Notts players took it upon themselves to attempt a couple of ambitious efforts, Gary Liddle nearly scoring from a 30-yard volley.

Eastham was once again the culprit as he felled Judge inside the box, and JCR fired a confident penalty in front of the Kop crowd to take the scoreline to 4-1.

The frustration soon got to the Bury players, Tom Soares' snarling challenge enraging the crowd and earning him a yellow card.

As the Kop chanted "It's just like watching Juve!", Notts took their foot off the pedal and, despite Bury's forays into the opposition penalty box, they couldn't trouble the Notts defence further, and the game finished 4-1.

This absolutely exhilarating second half display was the perfect start to the weekend for the Notts faithful, and also convinced Ray Trew to give Chris Kiwomya the manager's job on a permanent basis until the end of the season. Notts rise up to ninth, eight points off a play-off place.