Michael Cheek to the rescue as Bromley salvage point at Meadow Lane

Notts County and Bromley played out an end-to-end 1-1 draw on Tuesday night courtesy of second-half goals from Kyle Cameron and Michael Cheek.

The result saw the away side lose their fantastic winning streak but they’ll take positives from the performance as Cheek continued his impressive goal-scoring form to rescue the Ravens late on.

It was the hosts who started brightest, in fact, they could have been ahead after just five minutes.

Just shy of the penalty area, Magpies joint-top scorer Ruben Rodrigues managed to steal the ball from Omar Sowunmi’s grasp before laying a tidy backheel into the path of fellow top goal-getter Kyle Wootton. Rushing towards goal, the striker aimed low but Bromley goalkeeper Mark Cousins was equal to it as he parried away.

It did not take long for the Ravens to settle down, though, as they began to dominate large parts of the game following their close call. The visitors won every midfield battle they were presented with, but ultimately struggled to make their possession count with a real lack of clear-cut chances as the game went on.

Barring a few touches early on, star-man Cheek had endured an unusually quiet start to the match. Something that would need to change should Bromley walk away from Meadow Lane with their winning streak intact.

In what was an attempt of sheer desperation, Luke Coulson took it upon himself to fashion a chance for Andy Woodman’s men in the 40th minute. The winger, who was occupying the right-back spot throughout this affair, had a shot from range only to see his effort roll into the corner flag and trickle out for a goal kick.

With half-time approaching, Coulson then tried his hand at providing as he sent an enticing cross into the box from the right-hand side. Corey Whiteley met the delivery at the back post, however, his header was smothered easily by Anthony Patterson on this occasion.

Less than a minute after kicking off for the second half, County took the lead in unlikely fashion through captain Kyle Cameron. Outside of the box, the centre-back struck a wonderfully curled effort into the top right-hand corner leaving an outstretched Cousins helpless.

The hosts could have doubled their lead in the 56th minute. A neat string of passing between Jim O’Brien and Frank Vincent resulted in the latter unleashing a fierce effort towards the bottom left-hand corner. Cousins reacted well to make a strong save, forcing the Magpies to settle for a corner.

Cheek had only failed to score on two occasions this season, a tally which he ensured would get no bigger as he scrambled home the equaliser 10 minutes from time. Following a corner, substitute James Alabi saw his side-footed effort saved by Patterson but it fell straight into the path of the Bromley talisman who simply could not miss.

The 30-year-old has now scored 10 goals this season, including five in his last six appearances. He is quite the hero as of late.

A sucker punch for County though Ian Burchnall’s men responded well by piling pressure back onto the visitors. It almost paid off in the 86th minute as former Newcastle United youngster Cal Roberts smashed an effort off the crossbar from what must have been 40 yards out.

Three points were not to follow for the Magpies, however, who were unable to forge ahead in the dying embers, with the match ending in a 1-1 draw.

The encounter saw both sides remain in the same league position with Bromley sitting sixth and County in eighth.

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