Notts County captain Alan White turned from villain to hero during Notts' entertaining 1-1 draw with Swindon Town.
Centre-back White atoned for gifting Swindon's Fola Onibuje the games opening goal just after half-time, by equalising with a looping header after 67 minutes.
A draw was perhaps the fair result, with Notts' battling qualities further in evidence following Wednesday's famous cup win at Middlesbrough. The Magpies certainly needed to fight hard, with The Robins at times illustrating just why they have made such an impressive start to the season.
Expectancy levels were rife before the game. Notts' fans gave their side a heroes welcoming as the teams ran out, whilst the travelling support know their side are favourites for an immediate return to ‘League 1'.
Notts boss Steve Thompson made eight changes to his starting line-up. Kevin Pilkington, Dan Gleeson, White, David Pipe, Dan Martin, Andy Parkinson, Junior Mendes and Jason Lee all began the clash.
This meant that cup heroes Saul Deeney, Stephen Hunt, Gary Silk, Jake Sheridan, Ian Ross, Tom Curtis, Lawrie Dudfield and Tcham N'Toya all, quite unfortunately, missed out.
Inevitably, the game started at a frantic pace. Both sides have made good starts to the season. Prior to the proceedings Dennis Wise's men were in second place, whilst Notts were sixth.
Because of this, much was expected of the game, and though it was largely a direct match, it did have it's moments.
In front of a crowd of 6079, it was the visitors who started the brightest. Midfielder Michael Pool tested Pilkington immediately, with a low long-range strike. It seemed Pilkington would simply grasp the ball, but an awkward bobble in front of the former Manchester United ace caused panic in the Notts crowd. The ball appeared to go over Pilkington, but he managed to claw it back to save his own embarrassment. It wasn't dissimilar to Stan Collymore's famous ‘fluke' goal for Liverpool against Blackburn Rovers in the nineties, only Pilkington saved his own blushes!
For the first twenty minutes, Notts seemed to want to get the ball up to target man Lee at every opportunity. Whilst it is fair to say Lee won the majority of things in the air, the longer balls into the channels were easy for Swindon's defensive duo of Ady Williams and Jerel Ifil to deal with.
Junior Mendes, Lee's strike partner, cut a frustrated figure, as the direct approach was continually cleared by The Robins.
Notts' wingers, Pipe and Parkinson, were struggling to get into the game, meaning that Swindon could enjoy winning the midfield battle. However, Swindon often over-battled, and their physical approach gave Notts several set-piece opportunities.
So far this season, Notts have used their dead ball game to good effect, and it was another well rehearsed set-piece routine, that gave Notts their first real chance.
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Parkinson curled a deep free-kick in from the left-hand side, and Mendes managed to head it back across goal to Matt Somner. The tenacious midfielder rose highest to nod at goal from six-yards, but couldn't keep his header down, and it sailed high and wide of Peter Brezovan's goal.
It raised the noise levels however, and as the atmosphere grew, so did the tenacity of the players.
Swindon midfielder Paul Evans, who was at Nottingham Forest last season, went down under thunderous challenges from Somner, Parkinson and Lee. On all three occasions he seemed to stay down a little too easily, and it seemed The Robins may be content with a point.
Manager Wise was known for his dirty tactics as a player, and he seemed to be trying everything in the book in a bid to take something away from the clash. Evans was executing his role in that perfectly.
Nevertheless, Swindon can play a bit, and their passing became more evident as they cleaned up more Notts long balls easily, and began attacks of their own.
Swindon winger Royce Brownlie broke into the box, but Austin McCann forced the angle so that Brownlie failed to over test Pilkington who simply caught well.
Evans had a couple of long-range efforts, one of which went out for a throw-in near the Z-Block, who were hysterical to see a former Forest player provide such a comical moment.
With the referee employing a stop-start approach to the tie, the first half seemed to pass by quickly.
The last, and best chance of the half fell to Swindon five minutes before the break. Experienced centre back Williams received the ball, after a short corner, just three yards out, but his volley hit the bar, before Gleeson steered further danger away.
It was certainly a let off, and Thompson had to address his troops at half-time.
Thompson sent on mercurial midfielder Ian Ross for Dan Martin, who was largely anonymous, at the break. However, before Ross had even touched the ball, Notts were a goal down straight after the break.
A seemingly innocuous long ball from Swindon's defence had White back peddling, and with Onibuje breathing down his neck, the former Boston defender called for Pilkington to clear the ball. However, Pilkington was slow to react, and White was even slower, meaning Onibuje nipped in to chip a diving Pilkington. The ball sailed into the gaping net, as White and Pilkington embarrassingly turned away for Notts to restart again.
At least Notts had adopted a better passing game in the second half, and with Ross determined to pull the strings, more opportunities were being created.
Several free-kicks were well cleared by Swindon, before Onibuje had a good effort well saved by Pilkington.
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Unsurprisingly it came from a Ross corner. He delicately chipped towards the front post and White flicked a looping header over Brezovan's reach. He was clearly ecstatic, as were the Notts support, and it sparked the hosts into life.
Swindon returned to their time-wasting tactics, Brezovan was particularly guilty, taking his time with numerous goal-kicks, but Notts were still able to exert more pressure.
Full-back Gleeson went on an amazing run, weaving in and out of challenges before his shot was eventually blocked by Williams. Fellow Notts full-back McCann was looking dangerous down the left, and his crossing tested Ifil in particular, with Jason Lee causing havoc once again around the box.
So much so that Mendes started to get a bit of luck, and an audacious scissor-kick almost paid off.
Swindon weren't finished, and their seemingly greater potency saw substitute Christian Roberts to force a good save from Pilkington. Then, Lee Peacock smashed an effort against the crossbar, forcing Wise to claim the ball had actually gone in, before Notts gallantly cleared the danger.
Dudfield and N'Toya entered the fray for Notts, and N'Toya had the games final chance. In the last minute of injury time he burst into the box, but with Parkinson better placed to the left, N'Toya selfishly had a wild shot at goal, which sailed over the bar to Parkinson's anger.
A draw was indeed a fair reflection, of a game which delivered much in the way of enthusiasm, but little in the way of obvious quality.
It was left to White, and he made it alright, in the end.