Frustratingly the friendly against AEK Athens was called off, but not before Notts took a 1-0 lead thanks to Alan Judge...
Notts went in at the half-time break of this pre-season friendly match 1-0 up after some enterprising football in the opening 45-minutes, but sadly a huge storm over Meadow Lane meant the game had to be called off, much to the frustration of the supporters and players.
After returning from Spain 24-hours previously, Notts played some great passing football and deservedly led from Alan Judge’s neat finish on 17-minutes.
The Magpies started the brighter with Northern Ireland international Jeff Hughes going close to opening the scoring after Bartosz Bialkowski’s goal kick was flicked on by striker Yoann Arquin. Hughes managed to get the ball out of his feet, before shooting, but his shot was well saved.
The game settled down, with both sides having plenty of the ball, but chances were few and far between, with Athens striker Roger Guerreiro having a rare chance to open the scoring before miscuing his long range effort.
Greek forward Michalis Pavlis’ late and reckless challenge on Neal Bishop gave Notts a free-kick in a promising position relatively early on. It was the captain that brushed himself down to attack the set-piece, but keeper Ionannis Arampatizis' outstretched arm kept it goalless.
It was Bialkowski's long clearances that led to Notts opening their account. His goal kick was flicked on towards Judge’s perfectly timed run and the Irishman showed great composure to take the ball on and finish sublimely past Arampatizis to make it 1-0, to the delight of the home crowd.
Arquin continued to cause problems for the Athens defence, collecting the ball 30-yards out and unleashing a shot which was tipped over.
Sadly as the half closed the rain lashed down and it was clear to see during half-time that surface water on the pitch was going to be a problem following the storm.
When the players returned to the pitch after the interval, referee Andre Marinner initially delayed the kick-off for 15 minutes, but ultimately had no other option than to call the match off after discussions with both managers.
Notts: Bialkowski, Liddle, Smith, Leacock, Williams, Boucaud, Labadie, Bishop, J Hughes, Judge, Arquin Subs: Mitchell, Sheehan, Bencherif, Mahon, Kelly, Waite, Hollis, Tempest, Fuentes, Zoko.
AEK Athens: Arampatzis, Guerreiro (Kotsaridis), Rikka, Pavlis, Tsamourlidis, Arkoudas, Lagos, Fountas, Agyiriba, Grontis, Stamatis Subs: Makryonitis, Tsitas, Nikolopoulos, Papadimitriou, Katsetis, Vlachos, Kalogeris, Fetsis, Kourelas, Nikolias.