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Under a bright sun trying desperately to shine through an overcast sky, Notts County finished a disappointing season on a decent note, drawing against fallen giants Coventry 2-2 at Meadow Lane. Buoyed by a good run of form and a victory against eventual League 1 champions Doncaster last week, Chris Kiwomya began the game in a 4-4-2 formation. Notable points included Kristian Pearce and Tyrell Waite making the starting eleven again, Bartosz Bialkowski back in goal, and Neal Bishop making the bench after his injury spell. The first shot of the game fell to Coventry's Callum Wilson, who picked up the ball over the top and fired a half volley from the edge of the box. Bart was equal to it with a good diving save. A few minutes later, John Fleck was brought down by Jamal Campbell-Ryce and won a free kick. Carl Baker's impressive shot curled round the Notts wall and required another stunning Bart save. Despite some neat football by the home side and a couple of forays into the Sky Blues half, the away team had the upper hand, and it took the Magpies just over half an hour before their first meaningful shot on goal, JCR's long range attempt finally testing stand-in keeper Chris Dunn. The succession of attempts by Notts, however, led to the breakthrough, as a shot by Alan Sheehan was saved by Dunn on 34, but young Tyrell Waite was on hand to head home the rebound. Much like Romello Nangle's first goal against Colchester two weeks ago, this was a moment to be cherished for the player, the team and the fans. Notts were revitalised after the goal, and shortly after the restart, Sheehan nearly helped make it 2-0, his cross falling to stand-in skipper Dean Leacock. Dunn, however, forced a great save. More close shaves followed as Yoann Arquin's header was nearly deflected into the Coventry net by their own backline, before Pearce's header from the corner was just over. The second half saw Coventry come at the home team, with David Bell rattling the County crossbar from twenty yards out, before netting the equaliser on 52 minutes courtesy of Fleck's top corner finish. The disappointment lasted about three minutes for the home fans, as the impressive Pearce seized on a loose ball after Alan Judge's header met the post. A simple finish which fell right into his path, it put Notts back in front. Coventry, back on square one, set about trying to find a second goal, and on 71 and 73 minutes, David Bell's 25 yard missile required another top draw Bart save, before Fleck's left footed shot from deep inside the area went just wide of the left hand post. Coventry piled on the pressure and eventually County caved in on 86 minutes, substitute Franck Moussa's half volley flying into the bottom right hand corner of the home goal. The closing stages of the game saw more attempts being traded by both sides, Jeff Hughes for Notts and Bell and Cody McDonald for the Sky Blues. 2-2 would be the final score, however, and as the final whistle blew, the curtain fell on Notts County's 150th season, one which promised so much but ended up delivering so little. In the grand scheme of things, however, the club is in relatively healthy shape financially, and a top half finish isn't perhaps too bad a result. In addition, the future is looking bright, with some of the young Academy players like Greg Tempest, Tyrell Waite, Haydn Hollis, Fabian Speiss and Romello Nangle showing they can cut it at first team level, which heralds for a promising season in 2013-14. Thank you to all who have been following, reading and enjoying my match reports this season, and don't forget, even in the off season, Pride of Nottingham will be reporting on transfer rumours, happenings behind the scenes, and of course casting an eye on the Lane legends of yesteryear! Thank you for all your support, and Come On You Pies!

A short while ago I wrote an article about Notts County's 150 year existance, which I will link to at the bottom of this article for any readers to catch up on (if you choose to do so). Here is the second in the series of posts, where I've tried to describe the development of 'football'. Of course there are other codes of 'football' that grew out of 'mob football' in the mid/late 19th century. I've concentrated on the growth of football as we now know it in England, I hope you all find it interesting and any comments are again most welcome, so please get posting. In 1857 Sheffield FC was formed by members of Sheffield Cricket Club as a way of keeping fit during the winter months, so becoming the worlds oldest club playing Association football. (Notts now being a professional league side) They began just playing games between club members and in 1858 laid down the rules by which they would play, these became known as The Sheffield Rules. Hallam FC was formed in 1860 and soon there were at least 15 teams playing in the Sheffield area. Now inter club games were being organised and it became necessary to have a governing body to administrate these clubs. Thus in 1867 The Sheffield F.A. was created, becoming the first county association in England. Sheffield FC v Hallam FC is the oldest derby match still being played. Sheffield FC played an eighteen a side game in Nottingham under Nottingham rules on the 2nd of January 1865, their first game outside the Sheffield area. Football was also developing all over the country particularly in the London area and in public schools, however when inter-team matches were arranged there was a good deal of confusion regarding rules of play, One way round this was to play one half of a game using one teams rules and then use the other teams rules for the second half. This was obviously unsatisfactory. Also when pupils moved from school to university there was confusion about the rules of play. So in 1848 a compromise set of rules was formulated. These became known as The Cambridge Rules and were revised in1856.The rules included throw ins, goal kicks, forward passing and no running while carrying the ball. In 1862 Ebeneezer Cobb Morley founded Barnes FC (London) and being concerned about disputes over rules wrote a letter in 1863 to the Bell's Life newspaper suggesting that an association similar to the MCC in cricket be formed to decide set rules and govern football. So on the 26th of October 1863 a meeting was arranged at The Freemasons Tavern, Great Queens Street, London,with representative of several public schools and interested parties in attendance. Over a series of 6 meetings rules were drawn up by Mr. Morley using the Cambridge rules as a basis but also incorporating some of The Sheffield rules and others and favouring dribbling and kicking the ball rather than handling and running whilst holding the ball. As a result of the handling and other rules being removed the representative of Blackheath withdrew his team from the FA. Several other clubs soon followed suit and later in 1871 formed The Rugby Football Union. So now we have Rugby football and Association football or 'Soccer', a corruption of association. Sheffield FC joined the FA in November 1863 but continued to use their own rules until 1878 when the FA incorporated some further Sheffield rules. The game of football (Soccer) was now becoming recognizable as the game we know today but there was still quite a way to go. To be continued soon. Discuss the Series - Super Rams Articles in the Community. Previous Article | Notts County - 1862