diff --git a/Parsedown.php b/Parsedown.php
index 040b774..efb11dc 100755
--- a/Parsedown.php
+++ b/Parsedown.php
@@ -974,7 +974,7 @@ class Parsedown
 
                 case '`':
 
-                    if (preg_match('/^(`+)(.+?)\1(?!`)/', $text, $matches))
+                    if (preg_match('/^(`+)[ ]*(.+?)[ ]*\1(?!`)/', $text, $matches))
                     {
                         $element_text = $matches[2];
                         $element_text = htmlspecialchars($element_text, ENT_NOQUOTES, 'UTF-8');
diff --git a/tests/data/code_span.html b/tests/data/code_span.html
index 67b28b1..351610a 100644
--- a/tests/data/code_span.html
+++ b/tests/data/code_span.html
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
 <p>a <code>code span</code></p>
 <p><code>this is also a codespan</code> trailing text</p>
-<p><code>and look at this one!</code></p>
\ No newline at end of file
+<p><code>and look at this one!</code></p>
+<p>single backtick in a code span: <code>`</code></p>
+<p>backtick-delimited string in a code span: <code>`foo`</code></p>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/data/code_span.md b/tests/data/code_span.md
index 3b850fd..0654262 100644
--- a/tests/data/code_span.md
+++ b/tests/data/code_span.md
@@ -2,4 +2,8 @@ a `code span`
 
 `this is also a codespan` trailing text
 
-`and look at this one!`
\ No newline at end of file
+`and look at this one!`
+
+single backtick in a code span: `` ` ``
+
+backtick-delimited string in a code span: `` `foo` ``
\ No newline at end of file