Notts County 3-2 Boreham Wood: Magpies win extra-time thriller to reach promotion final

A final-minute extra-time aim by substitute Jodi Jones despatched Notts County into the Nationwide League promotion remaining with an enthralling win towards Boreham Wooden after being two down.

Aiden Baldwin’s headed equaliser within the sixth minute of damage time had despatched the sport to further time, after he had pulled a aim again with a thumping 35-yard end instantly after the break.

Baldwin’s medical finishes – the primary objectives of his senior profession – rescued the Magpies’ hopes of returning to the English Soccer League after a four-year absence,

Femi Ilesanmi had punished the wasteful hosts within the first half, sliding dwelling the opener from shut vary earlier than Lee Ndlovu pounced on a disastrous defensive error to make it 2-0 in first-half damage time.

Baldwin pulled a aim again after the interval however former Notts goalkeeper Joe McDonnell – who joined the Wooden as an emergency mortgage for the play-offs – saved Ruben Rodrigues’ penalty in an exciting recreation in entrance of a pulsating crowd of 15,617.

Rodrigues’ failure to stage from the spot – a miss that added to a woeful day in entrance of aim for the playmaker – gave the impression to be the decisive second, earlier than Baldwin steered dwelling his dramatic late header.

Jones then went on to sensationally win it within the one hundred and twentieth and remaining minute.

The winner sparked joyous scenes as followers ran onto the pitch because the Magpies reached their second play-off remaining in 4 years, having been crushed by Harrogate behind closed doorways when the 2020 decider was performed throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 161-year-old membership now has one other probability on the nationwide stadium to be restored because the ‘oldest Soccer League membership on the earth’, a mantle they misplaced when relegated from League Two in 2019.

Notts completed the common season with 107 factors however have been edged out by Wrexham within the battle for automated promotion.

Magpies boss Luke Williams had mentioned that simply wanting on the desk could be a very “easy evaluation” when making an attempt to measure who would have the sting for the elimination recreation – regardless that the hole between second-placed Notts and Boreham Wooden in sixth was bigger than the space between the Hertfordshire membership and the relegation locations.

Nonetheless, the Woods’ status for upstaging rivals in one-off video games has outlined them in latest seasons, with their run to the FA Cup fifth spherical in 2021-22 famously seeing them knock then Championship aspect Bournemouth out.

They lived as much as status on an unbelievable afternoon on the Black and White financial institution of the River Trent.

On a turbulent afternoon that completed with followers celebrating on the pitch, Rodrigues wasted two big probabilities inside the primary six minutes.

He then didn’t beat McDonnell with Notts’ greatest first-half probability, after wriggling free contained in the field.

The guests remained harmful regardless of seeing little of the ball, and after goalkeeper Sam Slocombe was known as on to tip a Jack Payne volley over the bar, Ilesanmi shocked the hosts when he broke the impasse with a sliding end from six yards.

Baldwin then fired dangerously extensive, whereas the defender and Rodrigues compelled saves from McDonnell as Notts looked for an equaliser.

A sloppy move from the skilled John Bostock, nevertheless, gifted the Wooden their second, as Ndlovu claimed the ball, ran on the defence and coolly slotted dwelling past Slocombe.

A fierce Baldwin end gave the Magpies the best begin to the second half, however the defender nearly handed the Wooden a two-goal lead once more moments later with a defensive mistake.

Crucially, he recovered to deflect a Ndlovu shot extensive after the striker had rounded Slocombe.

When Rodrigues was bundled to the bottom within the sixty fourth minute, he had the prospect so as to add his nineteenth aim of the season however didn’t get the higher of the wonderful McDonnell together with his penalty.

There was nonetheless time for Notts’ Macaulay Langstaff to twice threaten so as to add to his file 42 Nationwide League objectives for the season, however he bent each efforts off course, earlier than the equaliser and winner got here from an unlikely supply.

Whereas Baldwin had not scored earlier than his two objectives in regular time, Jones had not scored for Notts – till a aim that can be remembered by the Magpies trustworthy for generations.