Notts County 1 Bees 1

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Battling Bees win Belated Point from Blundering Ref

Brentford drew 1-1 with Notts County after playing most of the game with ten men following the harsh dismissal of Nathan Elder.

The sending off was made by referee Stuart Atwell, who earlier this season gave the infamous "goal that wasn't" earlier this season in a match between Watford and Reading.

Elder went up for a header in the eighth minute with County skipper Mike Edwards and was then dismissed for violent conduct - an offence which seemingly occurred only in the mind of Atwell, as there was no appeal from County players and the supporters in the Braemar Road nearest the incident appeared both bemused and antagonised by the sending off.

Atwell then continued to give an array of baffling decisions for the remainer of the game to complete a terrible performance.

County took the lead shortly after Elder's sending off after some fairly bad defending, but Brentford battled hard throughout the game and deservedly won a point at the death with a headed goal from defender Mark Phillips. Brentford should be praised for their sheer effort yesterday, as should the crowd who showed some good vocal support.

There was the odd hairy moment during the match, particularly when Notts County ran at right back Karleigh Osborne (who put in a performance that was frankly shocking) but a combination of last gasp defending, poor finishing and sheer ineptitude allowed Brentford to keep the deficit to a single goal until Phillip's late strike.

Bees - Hamer, Osborne, Phillips, Bennett, Dickson, Williams, Bean (Hunt), O'Connor, Wood (Poole), Elder, Macdonald.

Subs not used - Simon Brown, Newton, Halls

Thanks to beesotted for the match report

January 18, 2009