Key events
45+1 min County catch Chesterfield on the back foot and Rodrigues leaves their centre-backs backpedalling desperately, but his final pass to Chicksen is horribly undercooked. That’s County’s first half in a nutshell, really.
44 min Chesterfield flood the County box with blue shirts, but lack a final ball. Dallas ends up with a half-chance, but Slocombe sweeps up before he can unleash a shot.
43 min Nemane thinks he’s won a corner after another nifty bit of play out wide, but Clements manages to dispossess him and somehow not get the final touch.
40 min Dallas latches on to another long ball over the top and goes clean through but, mercifully for County, he’s flagged for offside.
37 min Bostock gets the first booking of the game after hauling down Armando Dobra and ending a promising Chesterfield counter-attack.
36 min Good save! Chicksen plays a pass to Austin, who moves it on to Nemane on the right. From a tight angle, he stings Fitzsimons’s palms with a fierce shot. The Chesterfield keeper manages to push it wide.
34 min County have a long spell of possession, Bostock again pulling the strings from the deep midfield. The ball ends up with Chicksen on the left but he sends another mishit cross straight into the arms of Fitzsimons.
32 min Bostock drives forward and sprays another diagonal pass to Chicksen. He’s forced wide when he’d rather cut inside and the attack peters out.
We’ve got some correspondence from Paulo Biriani. “I really want both teams to go up,” he says. “That only two get promoted from the league really isn’t fair at all. And there should be a rule that all teams getting over 100 points should be promoted regardless.”
28 min Dallas gallops down the left flank almost unopposed, County’s defence melting away before him. He gets to the byline and tries a cutback, but the ball is finally cleared.
27 min Austin finds himself in space out wide on the left and, taking his time, tries to pick out a teammate with a looped cross. It’s way too close to Ross Fitzsimons, however, and the Chesterfield goalkeeper gathers.
26 min And end-to-end spell ends with a threatening attack from County, but Adam Chicksen overhits his final ball. The game is wide open at the moment and County seem to be growing in confidence.
22 min Jones looks OK to continue and the game gets back under way. Liam Mandeville goes on a mazy run down the left, bamboozling Notts County’s defenders, but can’t pick out a teammate in the middle.
20 min Mike Jones, Chesterfield’s veteran midfielder, is down clutching his leg and will require treatment, causing a break in play.
19 min John Bostock plays a lovely quarterback-style diagonal pass to Nemane, who charges forwards. He gets another dangerous cross to Austin in the box but, again, his teammate fails to guide it goalwards.
18 min Chesterfield win a corner and King steps up, but his delivery sails over everyone and out for a goal kick.
16 min Big chance! Aaron Nemane bursts down the left flank and lofts a cross into the box. Sam Austin gets a toe to it, but can’t guide the ball home from close range.
14 min Rodrigues avoids a booking after crunching into Bailey Clements on the follow-through. The nerves seem to be getting to everyone at the moment.
12 min Dallas nicks the ball off Matt Palmer on the edge of the area and gets a shot away, but Baldwin makes a crucial block.
10 min A mix-up in the Chesterfield defence allows Rúben Rodrigues to scamper forward and whip a ball across the face of goal, but nobody gets on the end of it.
9 min County look to settle but play it back to Slocombe, who launches the ball out of play. He needs a hard reset or the game could start to get away from him.
GOAL! Chesterfield 1-0 Notts County (Dallas 6)
It’s the perfect start for Chesterfield after a nightmare few minutes for Slocombe. Dallas steps up and thrashes his spot kick into the back of the net, wheeling away gleefully.
Penalty to Chesterfield!
What on earth is going on?! Andrew Dallas runs on to a long ball over the top and into the box. Slocombe roars off his line and gets the ball, but wipes out Dallas in the process. Chesterfield have a chance to go ahead from the spot.
2 min What a weird start to the game. Chesterfield get an indirect free kick inside the Notts County box after Sam Slocombe, the County goalkeeper, lets the occasion get the better of him and takes two touches at a goal kick. Jeff King has an almighty go, but Slocombe redeems himself by making a big save.
Kick off!
Chesterfield get the game going to a deafening roar. Off we go, then.
The teams are out on the field, greeted by a huge round of applause and spurts of pyro. Who’s going up to the Football League? Let’s find out.
Speaking to BT Sport before the match, Paul Cook, the Chesterfield manager, is asked what he plans to tell his players before kick off. “Be ourselves,” he says. “[Think about] everything that we’ve worked for.
“We’ve got one more big hurdle. It would make our town so proud and we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”
A few more things to tick off the bingo card: giant foam hands, homemade flags, massive bucket hats and Mr Whippy ice creams. Football in T-shirt weather, you just can’t beat it.
As Wembley begins to fill out, the warm-ups get under way. Nervous tension, anyone?
In case you haven’t read it already, here’s Ben Fisher’s interview with Jones, County’s playoff semi-final hero, who has spent much of the last week rewatching his winning goal. And why not?
With a little under an hour to go until kick off, Wembley Way is chock full of Chesterfield and Notts County fans. If you had novelty clown wigs, streaky face paint and jingly jester hats on your National League playoff final bingo card, please cross them off.
Notts County team news
Starting XI: Slocombe; Cameron, Baldwin, Rawlinson; Chicksen, Nemane, Bostock, Palmer, Austin; Rodrigues, Langstaff.
Chesterfield team news
Starting XI: Fitzsimons; King, Palmer, Grimes, Clements; Jones, Oldaker; Mandeville, Dobra, Colclough; Dallas.
📝 📝
Paul Cook names an unchanged starting XI from the one that won 3-2 against Bromley in the semi-final!
Tim Akinola has been named on the bench.#Spireites pic.twitter.com/R09Evq4TLg
— Chesterfield FC (@ChesterfieldFC) May 13, 2023
Preamble
After amassing a huge 107 points over the course of the regular season only to be outpaced over the final stretch by Wrexham’s star-studded locomotive, Notts County flirted with the unthinkable in their playoff semi-final against Boreham Wood. Their opponents, who finished 35 points behind them across 46 games, had a commanding 2-0 lead at half-time, leaving County to face the miserable prospect of having broken the National League’s previous record points total – 105, for those asking – without getting promoted.
In the end, two goals from Aden Baldwin – including an equaliser in the sixth minute of injury time – and a winner from Jodi Jones in the last minute of extra time handed them the most dramatic comeback imaginable. They will be keen not to make such hard work of it when they face Chesterfield, who finished a mere 23 points behind them, at Wembley this afternoon.
Chesterfield, who edged Bromley in a similarly chaotic semi-final, are no lightweights, taking a point at Meadow Lane back in August but losing 2-1 to County at home. Luke Williams, the County manager, has urged his side not to make the same mistakes again, saying: “We have to use the game [against Boreham Wood] as a lesson for us to be completely focused – not to be distracted by the atmosphere and what’s at stake.
“[My message is] don’t have these thoughts entering your mind when you still have a job to do. I feel that’s going to be crucial for the final.”
