Notts County and Salford City meet in the League Two promotion play-off final at Wembley on Monday, with one place in League One on the line. The match brings together the world’s oldest professional football club and a side chasing the highest level in its history.
Notts County are looking to return to the third tier for the first time in 11 years after reaching Wembley again only two years after beating Chesterfield in the 2023 National League promotion final. Salford, who finished fourth in the regular season and one point short of the automatic promotion places, arrive after beating Grimsby in the semi-final and stand one game from a first promotion to League One.
The final was set up by two teams who could hardly be tighter in the table. Salford finished one point ahead of Notts County and one place higher at the end of the regular season, while both had to take the long route through the play-offs to get here. County’s win over Chesterfield put them within reach of a swift return to the EFL’s upper half, and Salford’s result over Grimsby kept alive a season that had already carried more than one scrap with expectation.
Karl Robinson, who took charge of Salford in January 2024, has already dragged the club clear of trouble once. He guided them out of the bottom two to safety in the 2023-24 season, then watched them finish eighth last season and miss the play-offs by one point before this year’s surge. “It’s the highest point the club has ever been to, currently,” he said, and added that Salford have “broken every single record this season, everything - FA Cup ties, beating teams from above us the most amount of times, most amount of home wins, most amount of wins in a league season, most amount of points, highest league finish.”
That history runs straight into County’s. Founded in 1888 as a member of the Football League, Notts County carry a record that no current rival can match, while Salford come with the backing and profile that has helped lift them through the divisions. Robinson said the scale of the moment has not been lost on the club’s supporters: “They have invested money, time and so much emotion into this. And this is not just a game for them, they love this football club.” For readers following the wider Wembley schedule, ticket details for Southampton fans at the League 2 Play Off Final 2026 are being tracked separately at mogazmasr.com/104181, but Monday belongs to Notts County and Salford. The winner takes its place in League One; the loser starts again with a season’s work reduced to one afternoon.
