There’s the points table, still three matches to play for County, four for Wrexham.
Wrexham have Barnet away, Yeovil at home, Boreham Wood at home and Torquay away
Notts County have Woking at home, Maidstone away and York at home.
HUGE win at the top of the National League table...#BBCFootball pic.twitter.com/zMVEl0Q62h
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) April 10, 2023
Luke Williams, the County manager: “I can’t complain about the result but I’m really upset, obviously. I think what happened is that Paul Mullin happened. He created pretty much all of the problems." It’s hurts that we lost but we lost to a fantastic team.”
Relive more of the drama here.
BEN FOSTER SAVES A PENALTY IN THE 96TH MINUTE TO SEND WREXHAM CLEAR AT THE TOP! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/BB1kvP1BaU
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) April 10, 2023
Phil Parkinson, the Wrexham boss, is talking, hoarsely: “we’re not going to get carried away. It’s a really important victory but we can get our feet back tomorrow for training.”
Wrexham play at Barnet on Saturday.
WREXHAM DEFEAT NOTTS COUNTY TO TOP THE NATIONAL LEAGUE TABLE 🔝
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) April 10, 2023
All smiles from Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. 😄 pic.twitter.com/lfjreoo2qy
And this was the moment that won it for Wrexham.
SCENES 😳@Wrexham_AFC's Ben Foster comes up BIG to save @Official_NCFC's last-minute penalty 🦸♂️ pic.twitter.com/n4ZBSMCrF5
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 10, 2023
“Incredible,” says Ben Foster. “We’re so proud,” says Paul Mullin. “It’s in our hands. We know this isn’t done yet.”
Social media reaction in.
FULL TIME | Wrexham 3-2 Notts County
— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) April 10, 2023
The Red Dragons blow away the Magpies!
🔴⚪️ #WxmAFC | #WXMNOT pic.twitter.com/erwvIektU2
BEN FOSTER SAVES!!!!!
— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) April 10, 2023
Full-time: Wrexham 3-2 Notts County
Foster the hero! The podcast king, out of retirement, and his save wins a non-league classic. The game lived up to all its billing, and it looks as if Wrexham will soon be an EFL club. And the story will be there to enjoy too, in finest UHD (subscription permitting).
Ben Foster saves the penalty!
Scott, the sub, steps up. There’s a delay, as he has to respot the ball. A short run-up and Ben Foster, the veteran saves.
Updated
Penalty to Notts County!
90+5 min: Bostock’s chip goes in, and Austin tries to keep it in. Plenty of swinging legs and arms. An appeal for a penalty…..? Has he given it? He has! A handball from O’Connell, and very well spotted. Wow!
90+3 min: Notts County really need to GET IT LAUNCHED now. Bostock is still amongst it. They seem unwilling to pump the ball in there. Patient play, admirable in a way. And a free-kick won.
90+1 min: Wrexham fans smiling. It’s even sunny in Wrexham now, though the grins descend when Dalby almost gets in on goal, only to be tackled. Still, they can take time over the corner.
90 min: Into the last minute, Wrexham sat deep, Austin leading the charge, with some hurried defending holding them back. Six minutes to be added on.
88 min: Wrexham almost finish it off, only for Dalby the sub have his shot saved by a sliding Slocombe. Chances at both ends, almost next goal wins.
Updated
86 min: The TV commentary has just mentioned Blue Peter legend Tim Vincent. Yes, it’s that type of day.
84 min: All credit to Notts County, who aren’t giving this up, not at all. The breaks in play are taking longer when Wrexham have the ball. Hurry-up offense for County.
82 min: Not much calm to be found, and who wants that in a game of such blood and thunder? It’s lived up to its billing.
80 min: Yeah, there’s some premium content to be had here. Anyone checked Disney’s share price?
Goal! Wrexham 3-2 Notts County (Lee, 78)
Oh no, Notts. O’Connell’s long ball and then Bajrami, for some reason, backheels the ball into the path of Mullin, who sets up Lee to score. A disaster. The defending for the last couple of goals has been way down the pyramid, let alone fifth division.
Updated
77 min: A couple of subs made by Notts County. They now have the whip hand.
76 - Jones and Scott replace Nemane and Rodrigues 👏
— Notts County FC (@Official_NCFC) April 10, 2023
🔴 Wrexham 2-2 #Notts ⚫️ | #WXMNOT
Goal! Wrexham 2-2 Notts County (Cameron, 75)
Foster has to make a save from Austin…corner….it’s looped to the back post and Cameron nods down and in. A captain’s goal. Now, where we the defenders?
74 min: Notts go close. Cameron scampers on and crosses, and Foster’s hand deflects it away from the awaiting Langstaff.
72 min: The Racecourse Roar is loud now. “We’re gonna win the league,” sing the home fans. Here’s that Mullin goal.
Paul Mullin curls home his 44th goal this season in all competitions and @Wrexham_AFC are back level just after the break 🤩 pic.twitter.com/zjbdj9Q6oL
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 10, 2023
70 min: Yes, Reynolds and McElhenney, Ryan and Rob, really did enjoy that. They also applaud as Ollie Palmer goes off for Darby.
Goal! Wrexham 2-1 Notts County (Mendy, 69)
Long ball, chased down the channels by Mullin, and his cross goes across the box and Mendy, from a tight angle wallops in.
68 min: Whose need is greater:? Probably Notts, who have played a game more. Not that either team looks willing to settle for anything yet.
66 min: Notts County’s Palmer booked for a foul on Cannon, who’s gone down.
65 min: This game is going a bit silly now, as we hoped and expected. Ollie Palmer slides the ball through and causes mayhem in the County box, Chicksen having to come to the rescue.
63 min: Langstaff tries to escape on the counter, and gets hauled back by Mendy. That was very cynical.
62 min: Another Tozer bomb, this time it goes back the other end and Ben Foster almost gives the ball straight to Langstaff.
60 min: Slocombe plays sweeper keeper to clear. That only invites Ben Tozer to launch the ball in. From the second ball, perhaps the third, and O’Connell, falling back, smashes against the bar.
58 min: The ball squirts out to Mullin, after another Bajrami slip but this time he can only pump it into Slocombe’s midriff.
57 min: Let’s just say Stuart Attwell might struggle at this level. Or perhaps thrive. Plenty of foul play being allowed to stand.
56 min: County stepping it right up. Mendy has to dash back and clear the ball.
54 min: Rodrigues is back on, his voice possibly more whistly than before. His tooth is still missing.
52 min: Better still, the temperatures are rising, with Rodrigues, the Notts County player, having lost a tooth. There’s a search taking place. He lost it on the edge of his own box. Yes, welcome to the National League.
50 min: Wrexham find the goal they looked unlike scoring in the first half. They were full of danger from the start here.
Goal! Wrexham 1-1 Notts County (Mullin, 49)
Long ball over the top. Jones’ pass, was Bajrami fouled? Mullin slots in, just as he is expected to. His 44th goal of the season. Game on!
Updated
48 min: Slocombe again in the thick of it. Been a lot of rain at half-time, as there has elsewhere in the north west.
46 min: Back away we go. No changes at half-time. And some early aggro, as Phil Parkinson is booked for an early tussle between Mullin and Slocombe.
Bozzie and Fozzie:
Lovely goal from John Bostock. Ben Foster will be disappointed with that.
STUNNING 😱@Official_NCFC's John Bostock scores his first goal since September 2016 to strike a killer blow against @Wrexham_AFC 💫 pic.twitter.com/zCXnM6YcVc
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 10, 2023
Updated
Half-time: Wrexham 0-1 Notts County
Can’t imagine that half will survive the cutting-room floor when it comes to the edit. Maybe Ryan and Rob emoting aplenty. Neither teams’ star strikers had seen much of the ball. The main battle had been in the air. It’s almost as if this was fifth-division fare. Then it was John Bostock, who deserves his own miniseries, who smashes in that free-kick. A goal for all of England, and Notts County might soon be back being the oldest league club in football.
Goal! Wrexham 0-1 Notts County (Bostock, 45+2)
A free-kick from distance, left-footed, and walloped beyond Foster, over a wall that didn’t jump. What a goal. What a twist!
Updated
45+1 min: Three minutes added on.
44 min: Notts County have territory but fail to do much with it. This is yet to be a good game of football.
43 min: Mullin piles into Rodrigues, and is booked after a long chat from the referee. It was some clatter of a tackle.
41 min: Star billing for Mullin but his free-kick ends up among the diggers behind the goal. His bosses, in baseball caps and letterman’s jackets, look annoyed by that miss.
40 min: Ollie Palmer smashed into by Rawlinson who will be yellow-carded. Wrexhham had a break on. Mullin will take the free-kick.
39 min: So far, Notts County haven’t had to deal with the Ben Tozer long throw, the Dave Challinor du nos jours.
37 min: Ben Foster comes out very far to smash into Ruben Rodrigues. Thankfully, he misses his target.
36 min: Wrexham attempt to break at speed. Mendy is out wide, but then County go on the counter, with Nemane on the burst, only to run out of teammates.
34 min: Bajrami, who can be a bit of an animal, loops the ball over but Foster chases it out.
33 min: Paulo calls in: “Just wanted to say thanks to you and the guardian for mbming (if it’s not a word then it should be) this game.”
And Richard: “Notts fan here. This league is horrible and with only one automatic place, even more so. Both teams deserve to go up but it’ll be typical Notts when we miss out with this number of points only for next year to change to go up and us to finish third.”
32 min: Wrexham’s O’Connor is booked for smashing into Rodrigues, the Notts forward.
31 min: The ref is asking both teams to calm down. It could boil over, this. And nobody wants to see that.
Photograph: Alamy
Updated
30 min: Wrexham rage at officialdom once more. The ball loops over to Mullin who goes down when Slocombe comes out but there wasn’t much contact. Phil Parkinson likes the ball to go direct.
29 min: The Notts fans are those making the noise. And their team is stroking the ball around nicely enough.
26 min: The home fans are sounding a tad ticked off by the lack of progress. Nemane’s burn down the left for County causes a few problems but his ball towards Bostock is cleared.
23 min: Notts County are playing a high line here, which seems risky considering Wrexham’s pace. As yet, it’s a trap unsprung.
21 min: This is not much of an advert for the National League so far. And I write as someone with significant National League viewing behind them.
19 min: Edan gets in touch: “I was cynical of It’s Always Sunny at first but it is actually very funny. A bit like Seinfeld in that all the characters are horrible, but more extreme. It definitely uses the ‘no hugging, no learning’ mantra.”
As does Anthony Train: “Well, It is like Drago v Balboa this one, right? I, like yourself, have never seen that show or those movies. The only RR film I’ve seen is Free Guy, and he is OK in it, but it is no Truman Show and at best is 5/10. May even be worthy of a points deduction. But then he also did this, which negates any potential loss of points, which is brilliant.”
This may get me cancelled, but I don’t think Will Ferrell is remotely funny. He seems to turn others, including Roy Keane, into giggling schoolchildren.
18 min: Mullin attempts to loop the ball over a defender and make his way to goal but runs out of road.
16 min: So far, the quality that has led both teams to 100 points each has been lacking.
Updated
14 min: Ben Foster in the Wrexham goal hasn’t had much to do. County and Langstaff, their hitman, have been reduced to long-range stuff.
12 min: Penalty shout as Mullin goes down. Cameron was on the crime scene and looked to push over the striker. On the replay, that looks like a plum penalty. Still, all good streaming content.
10 min: It’s been nervy so far, with neither team on top just yet.
8 min: And yes, it’s that John Bostock, once a parable for lost talent, now an experienced player in the fifth division.
7 min: First corner of the game goes to County but it’s cleared. Bostock’s ball goes back in, and then O’Brien tries one from long, the second ball.
5 min: All Wrexham so far, bringing the intensity. County goalie Slocombe, surely too young to be the recipient of Are You Being Served humour, slips and is jeered.
3 min: We are reminded it’s 15 seasons since Wrexham have been in the EFL. They begin with fervour, Ollie Palmer playing the ball to Mullin who takes too much time on the ball.
2 min: Big noise at the Racecourse, with one side of the ground missing, yellow diggers behind the goal. Paul Mullin, the main Wrexham goal threat, is caught offside.
1 min: Away we go, Notts taking the kickoff. The biggest game in National League history.
There’s a minute’s silence for the late Notts County CEO Jason Turner, a very popular and able football man.
And here we go at the Racecourse. As my colleague Paul Bellsham (he supplies the pics) says: “Notts County formed in 1862, Wrexham in 1864...there can’t be many older clubs competing a fixture.”
“We’re all set,” says Phil Parkinson, the Wrexham manager. “We’ve been looking at this fixture for a while.” His team’s loss to Halifax means Notts are top. The leadership of this division has altered 12 times.
Updated
Your scribe has seen neither It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia nor any of the Deadpool films but the security guard at this game recommended both. Wrexham were very good in this game against a team three divisions above. Their fans were loud, but this is the big one. And their famous owners will be there.
The teams
Wrexham: Foster, O’Connell, Tozer, O’Connor, Barnett, Mendy, James Jones, Cannon, Lee, Mullin, Palmer. Subs: Howard, McFadzean, Young, Dalby, Cleworth.
TEAM NEWS | Wrexham vs Notts County
— Wrexham AFC (@Wrexham_AFC) April 10, 2023
🔴 Ollie Palmer and Tom O'Connor come into the starting XI.
⚪ Luke Young returns to the bench.
🔴⚪ #WxmAFC | #WXMNOT pic.twitter.com/4A5Edetjei
Notts County: Slocombe, Cameron, Bajrami, Rawlinson, Chicksen, Nemane, Bostock, Palmer, O’Brien, Rodrigues, Langstaff. Subs: Brooks, Austin, Jones, Vincent, Scott.
The boys 👊#WXMNOT pic.twitter.com/YLnvsXm6zf
— Notts County FC (@Official_NCFC) April 10, 2023
Updated
Preamble
Should you subscribe to a certain American media company’s TV platform, then you probably can’t avoid Wrexham. Imagine then how Notts County feel, a club closing in on its best ever points season as it seeks to return to the EFL and yet so are the club owned and promoted by two buddies from the world of Hollywood and network TV. Whatever your view of either club, it’s made for a thrilling climax to the National League season, perhaps the most-hyped non-league game in soccer history, even for those of us who recall Macc Town playing Kidderminster Harriers in 1996.
The National League table is actually ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/iBLT5RcTDA
— Dylan O'Connell (@JudgeDyl) April 7, 2023
