'There was obvious danger' - how fear turned into hope at Notts

Notts County are looking to return to League One for the first time since 2015 [Getty Images] Fake sheikhs and numerous brushes with financial collapse under a succession of owners were all part of a turbulent decade that led to Notts County dropping out of the English Football League in 2019. It was then - after two relegations in five seasons - that Danish brothers Christoffer and Alexander Reedtz bought the world's oldest professional football club and delivered stability before bankrolling their return to League Two in 2023. Now, the club that seemingly lurched from crisis to crisis – either brought about by a conman that somehow lured former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson to Meadow Lane, or the succession of winding up petitions they faced after failing to pay staff wages – is looking win promotion at Wembley for the second time in four years.

Magpies goalkeeper James Belshaw is a lifelong Notts supporter that worried about the club's existence over the years. And that is why he says Monday's trip to the national stadium – one he has already called a "surreal honour" after only joining his boyhood side in January – will be a moment to savour. "There were times when you didn't know whether you would have a football club to follow because of financial difficulties, and previous things that are well documented within the history of this club," Belshaw said.

"Following the promotion to League One and the Munto finance thing [which brought Eriksson briefly to Notts] in '09-10, to then have success pretty much immediately in League One and then the two relegations, it was a tough time to be a Notts fan. " Surreal honour to get Notts to Wembley - Belshaw Inspired by Messi, driven by mum – how Iorpenda earned his place at Wembley Listen to the latest Notts County interviews on BBC Radio Nottingham As a founding member of the Football League in 1888, dropping to non-league level in 2019 was a blow of historical proportions for club. But Belshaw - who lined up against Notts when Harrogate beat them in the National League promotion final in 2020 - says the time spent in the fifth tier and their revival thereafter helped "flip" the narrative.

"There are a lot of Notts fans that would argue that it's a League One football club and should be playing at that standard as a minimum," he said. "But to be on the right path to that, I think a lot of Notts fans would definitely take the years in the National League to be supporting a football club that they can be proud of that is ultimately still a football club, because that obviously was real danger. "To now have an ownership group that cares about the club, that's a stable club, that has a set way of running the football club in a way that has bought success can't be overlooked.