Notts County 3 Barnsley 2

Last updated : 26 December 2002 By Footymad Previewer

Not since Notts County retained their Second Division status back in April have their supporters gone home as exultant as they did after this stirring victory.

It was achieved against heavy odds, Notts having being reduced to ten men after 20 minutes through the second booking of midfielder Richard Liburd and then falling 2-1 into arrears midway through the second half.

But, from somewhere, Notts found reserves of energy and commitment to destroy Barnsley with two late goals.

The game had opened brightly, certainly on Barnsley's part - with a goal after barely a minute well engineered and finished by midfielder Kevin Betsy.

Barnsley were running the match and it took a 14th minute penalty conversion by Mark Stallard to pull Notts level and back into the game.

Barnsley, though, ran the rest of the first half only to find Notts goalkeeper Steve Mildenhall in top form with Ian Richardson a towering figure at the heart of the defence in front of him.

Richardson was there to tidy up when Mildenhall touched a Bruce Dyer rocket on to the bar and in the second half Dyer could not believe that he failed again to score having beaten the goalkeeper. But Richardson was there again to head off the line.

Dyer was not be denied for long, however, and with just over an hour played Barnsley were back in front when his shot hit the inside of a post and squirmed over the line.

If Barnsley thought they had won it, ten-man Notts had other ideas. Richardson delivered a beautiful curling shot wide of Andy Marriot to level on 78 minutes, his first goal in the league since February.

Then, in the last minute of the 90, Stallard headed the ball into the path of Ian Baraclough, who ran it over the line for a finish that brought the 7,413 crowd to their feet.