Vital Player Ratings vs Notts County

Notts County came out on top of a bad tempered affair at Gresty Road as Luke Rodgers and Ashley Westwood see red.

The Magpies went 1-0 just five minutes into the second half with a free kick floated in towards the far posted diverted into the back of the net by Mike Edwards.

This after Steve Cotterill's men were awarded a first half penalty after a minor foul by loanee Chris Stokes. Thankfully for the Alex 'keeper Steve Phillips was more than up to the task of denying penalty taker Davies.

Things hotted up in the final minutes when Luke Rodgers, frustrated by constant jeers from the Alex crowd and having just missed a glorious chance to put his side 2-0 ahead, had a scuffle with Ashley Westwood.

The referee immediately sent Westwood off after judging him to have kicked out at Rodgers whilst a yellow card for Rodgers was converted to a red after the referee had spoken to the fourth official.

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Well saved penalty and poorly protected for the goal there's little to really fault Phillips on. 7/10

Quiet game from Brayford. Did what he had to do, made a couple of darting runs down the wing. 6/10

About as solid as you get from O'Donnell. He's never going to be spectacular because I don't think he's up to the standard. A few stutters but a relatively ok game for DOD. 6/10

As with O'Donnell there is always a tendency with King that his concentration will slip. Thankfully not today and Notts County were fairly limited in terms of goal chances. 7/10

Gave away the penalty which seemed a slightly harsh decision but a case of another day, another referee. He also gave away a free kick which led to the Notts goal. Otherwise a ok game from Stokes, solid enough in his defending although his passing was slightly wayward. 7/10

Fairly ok game from Murphy though he tended to drift into the middle from the right side too often. 6/10

With Bailey he was a driving force in the first half. He sat too deep in the second half, especially when we know he's a threat with his goals at the moment. He shouldn't have fallen for Rodgers' bait however, losing him points. 6/10

Him and Westwood seemed to have the better of the midfield in the first half. Going about his job quietly Bailey was definitely missed once he went off injured. 8/10

Energetic performance from Grant, did a lot of running both on and off the ball without much reward. Still a lot to prove he remains a player who needs to become more of a consistent thread.7/10

A very good first half from Miller, causing County a lot of problems with his pace and flair. Quietened down in the second half, perhaps because they tightened up on him. 7/10

He seemed to be a marked man. A lot of 'mis-timed' tackles coming in from black and white shirts on Donaldson and it made for a pretty frustrating first half. He was a bit more threatening in the second but all in all he failed to really get to grips with the game today. 6/10

Lost out in the battle of the half time team talks and then made a point of taking a swipe at Crewe fans again for cheering as Rodgers went over a advertising board. I doubt anyone really was wishing real harm to come to Rodgers so Dario's just starting to come across as a bit of a miserable old man right now rather than the manager of CAFC.

Steve Cotterill got a bit gobby over the shenanigans with Rodgers and Westwood.

Should have stamped his authority on the game, and a bad tempered Notts County side, from the off. He didn't and made more of a hash of things as the game went on. To give Rodgers a yellow then have to change it to a red was laughable. 3/10

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