Notts County

I know that the Gashead party line is to dislike Notts County due to Warnock past+the whole Jocky Scott/Mark Stallard/Nicky Culkin incident from getting on for 20 years ago now. However, I have always had a big soft spot for them as I went many times when I was at Uni there in the early 2000s and I am glad that there finally seems to be some evidence that they are achieving some stability on their own terms.

I hope that the oldest football club in the world (founded 157 years ago) can bounce straight back up just like we did.

Not so sure Yeovil will be back for a long time, the club seems to be in real turmoil.

Wrexham v Notts County - Monday 10th April - 3pm - Massive game for both teams who are on 100 points each, only 1 goes up automatically.

Wrexham v Notts County: How Magpies have added 'theatre' to Hollywood showdown..

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Wrexham's meeting with Notts County will attract a worldwide TV audience thanks to the interest generated by the Welsh club's owners Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds.

Notts County know they have packed the National League title race with all "drama and theatre" that Tinseltown could want.

The Magpies and Wrexham are both locked on 97 points and only separated by goal difference after Friday's games, are on record-smashing pace, and meet on Monday in what is being described as the biggest game in the history of fifth-tier football in England.

Wrexham's Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney have turned the battle at the top of non-league football into a global streaming hit.

And while Notts boss Luke Williams says the documentary series is "brilliantly entertaining", he is not about to settle for his club being seen as a support act.

"How exciting is it to see big players, players that have incredible form, with Hollywood owners and a famous club - an incredible club - in Notts County," Williams said.

"There is a lot of very good ingredients for a great story and for great theatre.

"And I think we are very fortunate to be involved in the production of this. We have to enjoy it.

"Of course we have a determination and desire to win, but ultimately football is about people being able to experience emotions and experience drama - and it's all there."

While Wrexham's owners have brought a never-before-seen level of glamour to the non-league game, Notts are used to wrapping themselves in star power.

Singer-songwriter Jake Bugg is a lifelong fan who sponsors the club's away kit, with his name synonymous with their success this season as it is embossed on the front of their shirts.

Wrexham have undoubtedly raised the profile of the league, but Notts have proven to be the competition's biggest draw, attracting record-breaking attendances for the division.

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Christoffer (left) and Alexander Reedtz have been the owners of Notts County since 2019

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Paul Mullin was the National League golden boot winner last season, with Macaulay Langstaff leading the race this term

Wrexham's Paul Mullin has plundered 34 goals, but even he has not been able to keep pace with Notts' record-breaking striker Macaulay Langstaff, who tops the scoring charts with 41.

They share an insatiable appetite for goals, but their route to spearheading these two attacks are vastly different.

Mullin dropped a division after top scoring in League Two in 2021 to supercharge Wrexham, while Langstaff took up a step in the non-league pyramid last summer to produce what has been a career-defining campaign in front of goal.

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Phil Parkinson is in his second season at the helm of Wrexham, while Luke Williams has been in charge of Notts County since last summer

My money is on an away win in front of a stunned partisan Welsh crowd... league form says nothing should make the top two spots....but playoff lottery for one could be their undoing

National League latest

Huge goal in the National League.

Leaders Notts County have gone 1-0 up at second-placed Wrexham right on half-time through a great free-kick from John Bostock (remember him?).

A win for the Magpies would send them three points clear of the Dragons, who have a game in hand.


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John Bostock

Wrexham 2 (Mullin & Mendy) Notts County 1 (Bostock)

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Mullin

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Mendy

Remaining games for these 2 teams at the top..

Wrexham - Barnet (a) Yeovil (h) Boreham Wood (h) & Torquay (a)

Notts.Co - Woking (h) Maidstone United (a) & York City (h)

Wrexham 3-2 Notts County: Drama befitting Hollywood as hosts close on League return..

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The on-field drama captivated Wrexham's Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney as much as the rest of the crowd

When those involved in the world of film, fantasy and superheroes struggle to find the sense in the drama, then you know you are witnessing something special.

But the surreal has become the norm for Wrexham and their silver-screen stewards, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

When the fans finally made their way out of the Racecourse after their top-of-the-table thriller with Notts County on Monday, when even the groundstaff had stopped working on the pitch, the north Wales club's co-chairmen were still treading the turf, still smiling, still seemingly shaking their heads in disbelief.

Granted, their financial backing and all the razzmatazz that accompanied it was always going to make promotion back to the Football League seem like a reality for Wrexham after 15 long years.

But the way in which they took an almighty step towards ending that exile in a 3-2 victory over nearest rivals Notts County was stretching credibility even for those used to the weird and wonderful of Hollywood.

Both teams already on 100 points going into the game? Needs work. Two teams with more than 100 goals? A bit more oomph, perhaps. How about a penalty in the final minute of injury time, saved by a 40-year-old, in former England keeper Ben Foster, returning to the club he last played for 18 years ago?

"I can barely speak, it was absolutely, stunning, fantastic, incredible," said McElhenney. "I think that was the most exciting sporting event this crowd ever seen, let alone the millions watching at home."

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And there were millions watching, partly because of the record-breaking runs engineered by both sides amid the jeopardy of only one automatic promotion spot, and partly curiosity about the Welcome to Wrexham TV documentary that has been a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

Journalists from the Netherlands, Italy and Germany were all represented in the Racecourse's press box, while local hoteliers said that hearing north American accents on trips to watch Wrexham are now commonplace.

On Thursday, a coach trip with fans from San Francisco turned up just to see the pub featured in the documentary and catch a glimpse of the stadium.

Those who descended on Monday, though, were very much here for the game being billed as the biggest in non-league history.

By mid-morning the fans were queuing near the stadium, trying to enter the pre-match parties. Even the night before the talk was of tickets, of tactics, of the tension of not blowing their big chance of promotion.

They knew the A-list owners would be in town, but that's the norm now. That's just Ryan and Rob. The football was what mattered.

And the showpiece delivered. The rough and tumble of non-league football, illuminated by the skill of John Bostock's opening free-kick for the visitors in first-half injury time, then the surge of Wrexham momentum that saw Paul Mullin and Jacob Mendy put the hosts ahead.

Notts County, having shown this season they fancied more than a supporting role in this Hollywood script, responded, then trailed once more, before their penalty in the final seconds.

"Excluding the birth of my children, I'm not sure I have," said Reynolds when asked if he'd ever experienced anything quite as emotionally draining as the match, answering against the background sound of Status Quo. Surreal, but again the norm.

"This is the most romantic game on earth. It was one of the most unique situations. My voice is shot from screaming.

"I'm used to working under extreme pressure, but usually I have some kind of say and control in it; here I had nothing so all I could do was watch and hope like everyone else."

And so they did, every moment captured by documentary cameras.

Yet speak to anyone around the club and it is clear that this is not for show. They have fallen for football - and Wrexham - hook, line and sinker.

In turn, the fans of Wrexham who have seen enough bad times to be justifiably cynical, have fallen for them.

They too shook heads in disbelief. More than once, as the songs from the nearby Turf hotel where the club was founded carried on into the night, supporters turned and said 'you couldn't make it up'.

Reynolds added: "Everything about the sport and the way the sport is handled here, the pyramid system, relegation and promotion, creates stakes like nothing else.

"This was a game people will talk about for ages and the attention coming on the National League is special, but worthy of this town and of Notts County.

"What both sides have achieved is historic. I don't think I've seen anything like it."

Reynolds is not wrong. Wrexham - who lead Notts County by three points with a game in hand - need seven more points from their final four games to be sure of promotion.

They are already just four shy of breaking the record for most points in a professional league in the history of English football.

"I speak for Rob too when I say our hopes and goals rest on the hearts of the Wrexham supporters," added Reynolds, who with McElhenney invested £3m last season alone according to recent accounts after their initial £2m to take over the fan-run club in 2021.

"We want this for the town as much as anything. I'll be fine no matter what happens, but we want this for the town and the community."

A community it's now normal for them to feel part of. They were just two of the 10,000 at The Racecourse on Monday, ones who threw their arms around each other and celebrated into the night like all the rest.

Surreal yes. But that's Wrexham for you these days.

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Referee: Scott Tallis

Attendance: 9,924

Notts County: How promotion to the EFL returns a 'badge of honour' to Magpies..

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Their relegation to non-league football for the first time in 2019 meant 161-year-old Notts, a founding member of the Football League in 1888, lost their mantle as the 'world's oldest football league club'.

Signs proclaiming Notts' place in the annals of the game, which were all around their home ground, were either taken down or covered over with black tape.

For the Magpies, the years of non-league exile were dark days.

Cedwyn Scott finally ended the years of purgatory with the decisive penalty in their 4-3 shootout win against the Spireites after Notts twice battled back to draw 2-2 at the end of extra time.

"In context it's enormous, it's a massive moment in the history of the club," Notts County boss Luke Williams told BBC Sport.

"We have shut the door on the worst times the club has experienced since its beginning.

"Now we are trying to walk through the next door.

"This is a huge moment to now continue to rebuild the image and brand Notts County and try to step it forward to where it should be."

Notts County historian Michael Chappell, 79, is a lifelong fan who can trace his family's lineage of support back to his great grandfather, who was born just two years after the Magpies were founded.

"I've seen the best and worst," Chappell told BBC Sport about his decades of following the East Midlands club.

"It's been a humbling experience in the National League.

"I'd prefer to go to the great football pitch in heaven with us being a league club and preferably a league club with a reputation for being on the up."

'A badge of honour'
Notts County are famed for being the team that gave Italian giants Juventus their iconic black and whites stripes - a link that got the Magpies invited to Turin in 2011 as the opponents the Serie A club wanted to play first when they opened their stadium.

Juve are known as the 'Old Lady' of Italian football, but Notts' place as elders of the game is best summed up by their ability to seamlessly adopt the tag of 'world's oldest professional club' when their league status was taken away.

And while the mantle of 'world's oldest football league club' is not as catchy, a little clunky and in need of explanation to anyone unfamiliar with the football pyramid in England - when leagues are still leagues outside the Football League - it places them at the front of the line of sporting trailblazers.

"It is treasured by fans to have it back," Chappell said. "It means the world because it's such a badge of honour.

"The history does bind a lot of people to the club. We are proud of it, fans are proud to be part of it. It's passed on through the generations.

"It has almost been our epitaph, but that little saying is something you can hang on to, it gets us recognition."