It is hard not to smile as Jodi Jones recounts the night before he fired Notts County to Wembley in the final seconds of extra time, a timely moment to score his first goal for the club. “I kept practising my penalty in the front room with my son’s little soft ball,” he says. “I was driving my missus crazy. She was saying: ‘Can you stop now? Because it’s actually making me nervous.’ I was saying to her: ‘And it’s Jones, he takes Notts to Wembley!’ I visualise everything. I try to picture it and take into existence. If you don’t believe, you’re not going to achieve.”
Although his decisive strike did not arrive from the penalty spot, the real-life scenario was nothing short of intoxicating drama. At half-time County, edged out of the sole automatic promotion place by Wrexham after an absorbing season-long title race, trailed 2-0 at home to Boreham Wood in their playoff semi-final. Jones entered with County trailing 2-1 and assisted a 96th-minute equaliser for Aden Baldwin to force extra time. Then, with penalties looming, Jones darted inside the box and arrowed in an extraordinary winner.
