The topsy turvy, breathless nature of a relegation battle was epitomised today on a baking afternoon at Meadow Lane, when Notts saw the gap between themselves and the relegation zone cut to two points, extended to seven points and finally settle on five in a chaotic last ten minutes in League One. Going into the game with a four point cushion ahead of the bottom four thanks to a late win at Swindon Town forty eight hours ago, Notts knew that three points would almost certainly secure their League One status for another year, a prospect that seemed possible against a Brentford side who's season was effectively ended by defeat at Wembley against Carlisle United in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final.
Despite victory at Swindon Martin Allen chose to tinker with the Notts line-up, presumably in an attempt to keep the side fresh with two games coming in such quick succession. Alan Judge's heroics at the County Ground earned him a first start since breaking his foot back in the deep Winter, whilst Krystian Pearce appeared for the first time since Notts last played Brentford, a 1-1 draw at Griffin Park. Lee Hughes spearheaded a three-pronged attack along with Karl Hawley and Febian Brandy, whilst Jon Harley and Stephen Darby operated as wing backs. For the Bees, ex-Notts winger Myles Weston looked set to provide much of their attacking threat, alongside pacy forward Lewis Grabban and mercurial midfielder Sam Saunders.
Having started the previous two games sluggishly, despite eventually picking up six points, Notts were looking to get on the front foot in this one and did so almost from the off, with Karl Hawley managing to fire off three shots within the first three minutes. In fact, the first quarter of an hour provided little other than Notts pressure, with Judge pulling the strings from the centre of midfield. That the first chance fell to the visitors was to be a warning for Notts of the pace the Bees possess on the counter attack, however. A sweeping move saw the ball crossed to Grabban at the far post, who saw a low shot saved by Nelson before steering the rebound wide of the far post. Shortly afterwards Febian Brandy's afternoon was ended after an innocuous looking challenge forced him off the field to be replaced by Craig Westcarr. This seemed to disrupt Notts' rhythm somewhat and the rest of the half petered out, with Robbie Simpson's wayward header and Hawley's even more wayward long range effort proving to be the only other efforts of the opening period. With the news that Walsall and Bristol Rovers were leading at Oldham Athletic and Bournemouth respectively, it dawned on all at Meadow Lane that the next forty five minutes were to be huge.
As in the first half, the Magpies started brightest with both Alan Judge and Neal Bishop having long range efforts early on, but both failed to trouble Simon Royce. The sense of deja vu continued as Grabban saw the first real chance fall to him, Mike Edwards' shocking backpass playing in the former Millwall man who was forced wide and dragged his shot across the face of goal. This started a spell of pressure for the Bees, who saw substitute Jeffrey Schlupp have his snap shot saved by Nelson and Marcus Bean head narrowly wide. Heading towards the last ten minutes, with Bristol Rovers and Walsall still winning, things seemed to be petering out for Notts who were staring at the prospect of holding just a two point cushion going into the final two games, but suddenly the afternoon sprung into life across the country.
Firstly, at Meadow Lane, Craig Westcarr's powerful shot hit Brentford defender Karleigh Osborne square in the face, almost knocking him unconscious. Despite this fairly conclusive evidence however, the referee inconceivably pointed to the spot to spark furious Brentford protests. The attempts to delay the penalty possibly went slightly too far from the visitors, but they will claim justice was done as Westcarr's powerful effort was brilliantly saved by the sprawling Royce. As this drama was unfolding in Nottingham, on the South Coast things were falling apart for the Pirates from Bristol. After leading for almost the entire afternoon thanks to Wayne Brown's fourth minute goal, they saw French defender Mathieu Baudry head in a leveller before veteran Steve Fletcher immediately struck to get Bournemouth's play-off push back on track and consign Rovers to the relegation zone.
Meanwhile, back in Meadow Lane, Mike Edwards' headed from a Hawley corner was blocked by the arm of Robbie Simpson. This one was a far more straightforward (well, maybe not, but correct at least) decision for the referee, with Hughes this time taking the ball. His penalty was hardly well hit, but with Royce diving to his right and the ball flying down the middle, Notts appeared to be just five minutes from safety with Rovers losing and Dagenham also trailing at Huddersfield. In fact, things got even better for the Magpies, as Jason Lowe had just smashed home a late equaliser for Oldham against Walsall. But on an afternoon like this, it never seemed as though that would be all of the drama and so it proved. As the clock ticked into the sixth minute of injury time, Schlupp was able to turn Sam Sodje far too easily on the edge of the box and fire a shot that Stuart Nelson will feel he probably should've saved. Notts ended up despondent at dropping the two points that would've seen them mathematical safe, but being five points clear of the bottom four with just two games left was a position the Magpies would've ripped a Brentford arm off to have been in with just ten minutes to go.
Line-Ups
Stuart Nelson
Krystian Pearce (Ben Burgess) - Mike Edwards - Liam Chilvers
Stephen Darby - Alan Judge (Sam Sodje) - Neal Bishop
Febian Brandy (Craig Westcarr) - Lee Hughes - Karl Hawley
Simon Royce
Kevin O'Connor - Karleigh Osbourne (Mickey Spillane) - Robbie Neilson - Sam Wood
Sam Saunders - Toumani Diagouraga - Marcus Bean - Myles Weston
Lewis Grabban (Jeffrey Schlupp) - Robbie Simpson