Football’s oldest professional club continued to clamber back up the divisions in the final match of the English domestic season. Alassana Jatta’s injection of higher echelon quality began a Notts County stroll in baking Wembley sunshine. Salford melted away while Lucas Ness’s towering header and Jodi Jones’s second-half goal confirmed County’s return to League One after an 11-year absence.
Salford, club of the Class of 92, facing County was celebrity versus tradition. Not that Salford lack football heritage within their ownership, nowadays Gary Neville and Sir David Beckham, with further former Manchester United notables lending helping hands. Beckham, furthering the A-lister trend of club ownership by co-owning two, was in the posh seats, along from Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.
County do not eschew modernity either, their Danish owners are leading lights in data analytics. Having spent four years in non-league until 2023, with two promotions in four seasons, County’s is a redemption arc for a club relegated from the top division in 1991-2, before the Premier League year zero.
“You talk about desire, this is stuff you can’t qualify,” said Martin Paterson, the County manager, a former assistant at Beckham’s Inter Miami. “How do you turn up at Wembley and perform? I don’t have the answers, my players were excellent.”
County set about their task at quite a lick, Jones, their impressive, buzzy Maltese No 10, at the heart. In temperatures approaching 36C, Karl Robinson’s team sweated cobs in chasing shadows. “It’s hard to be brutal when they have given their all this season,” he said of his players. “Incredible heat at certain stages; it was burning through.”
Those travelling south from Nottingham shared their disapproval of Neville and Salford’s low turnout; Wembley’s South Stand was three-quarters empty, Salford fans numbering about 5,000 of an overall 30,851.
Former Everton full-back Luke Garbutt’s left-foot diagonals were Salford’s key weapon. After Garbutt’s disappointing corner fell straight into the arms of James Belshaw, Jones’s curving pass – a beauty – found Jatta. The finish was firm, though the Salford goalkeeper, Matt Young, will have his regrets.
In the regular season they finished a point and a place above County, Salford beat them home and away. Wembley saw no repeat, Salford were well beaten and boiled over. Haji Mnoga’s challenge on Jones might have been a red card with a video assistant referee on duty. Punishment enough swiftly arrived when Ness won the aerial battle after Rod McDonald’s up and under. Cue TV pictures of a rictus, camera-aware Beckham.
From the break, County optimised the conditions, squeezing play into the shaded section of Wembley turf as Salford desperation took hold. Robinson made reinforcements, including Fabio Borini, once of Liverpool, Chelsea, Roma and Milan. Raising their game in a different climate to rainy Kersal proved beyond Salford. “We have big dreams and big hopes and we didn’t fill any of them,” said Robinson.
Conor Grant, a second-half arrival, supplied the clincher, his cutback for Jones’s finish followed by a maniacal celebration. “I’ve had a lot of family things going on,” explained Jones, once of Senrab, the east London nursery club that produced John Terry, Ledley King and Ezri Konsa among others. Jones first joined County in 2023 when Robinson loaned him from Oxford United. “It is the most fun I’ve had all season,” he said.
Neville’s and Beckham’s expressions bore the cruelty of the playoffs, the innate difficulties of lower division football. “Paul’s been in,” said Robinson of Scholes. “We’ll have conversations,” he said of his co-owners. League One is the boundary the Salford project has yet to cross. It welcomes back Notts County.
