James Belshaw Calls Wembley Trip a Surreal Honour for Notts County
james belshaw will walk out at Wembley with Notts County for the League Two play-off final after joining in January, and he called the occasion a "surreal honour" for a lifelong supporter. The goalkeeper’s route to this final cuts through a club story that has moved from financial danger to a promotion chance on one of the game’s biggest stages.
Belshaw and Wembley
Belshaw is a hometown player from a family that has supported the Magpies for generations, which makes this final feel different from a routine cup trip or league fixture. He lined up against Notts in 2020 when Harrogate beat them in the National League promotion final, and now he is on the opposite side of the same stage with his boyhood club.
He said there were times when you did not know whether you would have a football club to follow because of financial difficulties. He also pointed to the club’s spell under the Munto finance thing, which brought Sven-Goran Eriksson briefly to Notts in 2009-10, followed by success pretty much immediately in League One and then two relegations that made it a tough time to be a Notts fan.
Notts County’s rise back
Notts County are chasing a return to League One for the first time since 2015. They dropped out of the English Football League in 2019 after two relegations in five seasons, a fall that left the club rebuilding before the Reedtz brothers, Christoffer and Alexander, bought it and delivered stability before bankrolling the return to League Two in 2023.
The club was a founding member of the Football League in 1888, but Belshaw said many supporters would argue that it should still be playing at League One standard at a minimum. His own view is shaped by the years outside the league, which he said helped flip the narrative for the club and made the current run feel more secure than the earlier chaos.
Reedtz era and League One push
Belshaw said the years in the National League mattered because they gave supporters a football club they could be proud of and, just as importantly, one that was still there. He added that the club now has an ownership group that cares about it and a stable structure, and that those changes cannot be overlooked after the instability that came before.
That is the backdrop to Monday at Wembley: a club with deep roots, a goalkeeper who grew up inside its support base, and a chance to turn a difficult decade into a promotion. For Notts County, the final is not just about moving up a division; it is about extending the recovery that began after the collapse scare, the ownership change, and the long climb back to this point.
