Coventry City 1-1 Notts County

Marc McNulty's penalty ensured the tie remains level going into Friday's second leg

Marc McNulty's controversial late penalty rescued a draw for Coventry to leave their League Two play-off semi final with Notts County in the balance.

Jonathan Forte's instinctive 49th-minute strike looked to have earned Notts the halfway advantage before Friday's second leg at Meadow Lane.

But, in the 87th minute, Matt Tootle was adjudged to have fouled Tom Bayliss despite appearing to play the ball.

And McNulty steered home the spot-kick for his 27th goal of the season.

• Relive Coventry's first-leg draw with Notts County

On a tricky surface at the rain-lashed Ricoh Arena, both sides contributed to an exciting tussle, which produced an ultimately fair result.

The game was always likely to be played at a fast, error-strewn pace from the moment that the heavens opened an hour before kick-off and left puddles of standing water on the playing surface.

Coventry made a roaring start, McNulty hitting the post with a low shot and the follow-up from Max Biamou being deflected wide.

But the Sky Blues also had a miraculous escape when home goalkeeper Lee Burge somehow hooked away Forte's goal-bound effort for a corner.

It took another frantic goal-line clearance by Chris Stokes to keep Notts at bay at the start of the second half, rapidly followed by Jack Grimmer going close again for City with a header just over the bar.

Three of Jonathan Forte's 10 goals this season have been scored against Coventry

Notts went in front when left-back Daniel Jones did well to keep his feet better than Coventry's defenders in what seemed the most rain-affected corner of the pitch, and the alert Forte timed his near-post run perfectly to flick the ball into the back of the net.

After a couple of unanswered penalty shouts, Coventry were starting to run out of ideas until referee Gavin Ward blew for a spot-kick - and McNulty kept his nerve, sending goalkeeper Adam Collin the wrong way.

It was not the first controversial incident of the match, with Coventry defender Tom Davies not punished by the officials after appearing to tread on Richard Duffy's leg while the Notts centre-back was lying on the ground.

Coventry manager Mark Robins told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire:

"It had everything - goals, a thunderstorm in May and nearly 20,000 fans singing their hearts out in a tremendous atmosphere.

"We built momentum against a good team and we deserved something from the game. But I've seen the penalty back and, in fairness, if it had been given against me, I'd have felt disappointed.

"Maybe that little bit of luck was justified in that the second of the other penalties we should have had, when an arm was up in an unnatural position, that wasn't given. And it might just have been a balancing out."

Notts County manager Kevin Nolan told BBC Radio Nottingham:

"It was a massive mistake. The lad who jumped up was laughing.

"It was a fantastic performance. I thought we handled the conditions really well.

"We were fantastic to a man and would have merited the win. If we had been asked before about going back to Meadow Lane with a point, we would have taken it.

"But I can't hide the disappointment I feel sick because 1-0 would have been a fantastic result and it is taken away by the referee."