Walsall 1-1 Notts County

A determined Notts finally got their first point of the season as they battled to a 1-1 draw away at the Banks's Stadium against Walsall. Romaine Sawyers opened the scoring at the start of the second half, before substitute Yoann Arquin levelled with just over fifteen minutes to go. However, controversy reigned as Arquin had a perfectly good goal not given, and another given offside, both late in the second half. Chris Kiwomya reinstated Manny Smith to the heart of defence, the ex-Saddler back from his suspension, so Alan Sheehan and Mustapha Dumbuya were back to their rightful full-back positions. Tempest was on the bench after his game at left-back last week.

Notts started brightly, Danny Haynes firing a shot within the first minute which flew across the face of goal. At the other end, Ashley Hemmings attempted a chip, but it was well-blocked.

A lot happening within the first few minutes, a mistake by Mal Benning allowed Enoch Showunmi to thread through to Jamal Campbell-Ryce, whose shot was rather innocuous, before, again at the other end, ex-Notts player Craig Westcarr failed to control the ball properly after rounding Bartosz Bialkowski.

The lively start continued with Sawyers fouling Joss Labadie on the fifth minute, giving Notts a free-kick 25 yards out. Labadie fired a powerful shot which was skilfully saved by Richard O'Donnell.

The Notts midfielder would get booked just three minutes later, his reprisal on Sawyers sending him into the book.

More half chances continued to come the way of both teams, before Callum McGregor came very close to opening the scoring, but the Walsall keeper managed to get just enough on the ball to prevent this.

The fouls and subsequent free kicks kept coming, with Westcarr coming under particular scrutiny from the Notts defenders, but the middle period of the second half didn't see anything more concrete materialise.

Dean Leacock also went into the book after half an hour for getting one too many fouls in after Westcarr was targeted again.

Towards the latter end of the first half, Danny Haynes received a knock and was subbed off, to be replaced by ex-Chelsea forward Adam Coombes.

The half ended with a cracking chance to put Notts 1-0 up, again by Scottish starlet McGregor, with an effort which sailed just over the bar.

Sadly, as with other games this season, Notts found themselves at the end of a sucker-punch, because within the first few minutes of the second half, Walsall found themselves 1-0 up, Sawyers' powerful right-foot attempt from 25 yards beating Bart on 49 minutes.

A shell-shocked Notts struggled to pick themselves up from this setback, as Westcarr and Hemmings added to the Walsall chances within a few minutes.

Just before the hour, Mark Fotheringham had a good attempt to equalise, but his shot went wide. Westcarr countered with a good run and shot for Walsall which shook the net - from the back luckily.

David Bell's introduction, in place of JCR, seemed to invigorate the team, as Notts pushed on in a bid to get this equaliser. Bell had several cracking chances on 64 and 68 minutes, which gave the travelling Notts fans a bit of a kick-start after the setback.

Better was to come for the Magpies, as substitute Arquin, who scored the equaliser against the Saddlers six months ago, repeated this feat by levelling the score with a close-range header. Credit goes to Sheehan for providing a great cross from the left wing.

As the invigorated Notts fans called for a winner, a controversial goalmouth incident took place on the Walsall goalmouth, as Arquin beat O'Donnell to a header and it looked to have gone in, but the linesman didn't give it.

In injury time, Arquin again had the ball in the net, but this was given as offside, and as a result, the game finished 1-1. A hard-earned away point as Notts finally take themselves off nul points, but what will it be made of the disallowed goals at the end of the second half?