Notts County 3-0 Salford City: Magpies win emphatic promotion to League One | OneFootball

Notts County won promotion to League One with a 3-0 win over Salford City this afternoon at Wembley Stadium, rounding off the EFL’s playoff final weekend.

Alassana Jatta opened the scoring on the half-hour mark when he calmly slotted the ball into the bottom corner before Lucas Ness headed home a second on the stroke of half-time.

Jodi Jones smashed the ball home for a third County goal with just 20 minutes left to play, sealing promotion for The Magpies.

As It Happened

A scrappy start to the match saw both sides commit fouls before Notts County’s Jatta fired wide with the first shot of the match on the 16-minute mark. The first yellow card of the day was shown to Nicholas Tsaroulla shortly after, when he brought down Rosaire Longelo.

It was Jatta who broke the deadlock in the 31st minute, rounding off a lightning-fast counterattack with a calm finish into the bottom corner, to give County the lead. Salford went hunting for a quick response, but Luke Garbutt’s free-kick delivery evaded everybody in the penalty area.

Haji Mnoga was shown a yellow card shortly before half-time for a reckless tackle on Jones. County doubled their advantage from the resultant free-kick when Ness leapt higher than anyone else in the area and directed his header into the top corner, putting his side two goals to the good as they went in at the break.

Salford made a change at the interval as they looked to overturn the deficit with Ben Woodburn replacing Matt Butcher. They almost got one back immediately when Kallum Cesay was played clean through on goal, but his second touch was slightly too heavy, allowing James Belshaw to come out and deal with it.

Cesay was perhaps fortunate not to be shown a card minutes later following a late challenge on Tsaroulla. Belshaw was called into action again 10 minutes into the half, this time denying a volley from Ryan Graydon. Ness was then shown a yellow card for a foul on Daniel Udoh.

A double change followed for City, who introduced Dean Harris and Fabio Borini for Longelo and Brandon Cooper. Notts County’s first change saw Jayden Luker replaced by Connor Grant. Iropenda tested Matty Young from range moments later, but the Salford keeper was equal to it and made his first save of the day.

However, Young was beaten seconds later by Jones, who steamed on to the ball and lashed it into the far corner from 15 yards. Jones came close to adding a fourth goal from a free-kick, but Young pulled off a fine stop to deny him from distance.

Oliver Norburn’s afternoon was brought to an end shortly after as he was replaced by Matt Palmer, who immediately took the captain’s armband. Cole Stockton replaced Josh Austerfield for Salford as they continued to try to give themselves a glimmer of hope in the closing minutes. Notts County made a triple change at the same time, with Jones, Jatta and Tsaroulla replaced by Maziar Kouhyar, Lee Ndlovu and Keanan Bennetts for the final minutes.

Woodburn was added to the referee’s notebook in the 92nd minute for a bad tackle on Grant. Martin Paterson’s men held on for the remainder of injury time and secured their promotion to the third tier after 11 years away.