Luke Williams: Notts County want to 'close door' on non-league chapter, says boss

Boss Luke Williams says Notts County want to "close the door" on the non-league chapter of their 161-year history when they face Chesterfield in the National League promotion final.

Notts were pipped to automatic promotion by Wrexham, despite collecting 107 points.

Victory at Wembley will end their four-year English Football League absence.

"To win would mean we have accomplished the first step in what we hope is a longer journey," Williams said.

Talking to BBC East Midlands Today, the Notts boss continued: "From the very beginning that has been the idea - to get out of this division and not to put the breaks on, but to steam on forward.

"That means we would close the door on one chapter."

Notts' points tally during the regular season would have seen them secure automatic promotion as National League champions in every other season before this one.

Denying them was Wrexham - the Welsh club owned by Hollywood pair Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney - who finished top with a record 111 points.

Chesterfield were the only side, other than Wrexham and Notts, to have a spell at the top of the table after the first month of the season.

After 46 games, they finished only one spot below Notts in the table. The gap, however, was 23 points.

Notts have smashed a multitude of records to get themselves to within one win of of reclaiming their mantle as the 'world's oldest football league club', which they lost when relegated from League Two in 2019.

Macaulay Langstaff has scored a National League record 42 goals in a season, spearheading an attack that produced a club-record 117 goals during a campaign that ended with a club-high 32 wins.

Still, it took a remarkable fightback from two goals down to beat Boreham Wood 3-2 after extra time in Sunday's semi-final to advance to the showdown with Chesterfield at the national stadium.

"We would feel some sort of justification, a sense of confirmation, that all our hard work paid off," said Williams about what promotion would mean after such a historic season.

Williams, who said his side would feel "bullet proof" after their astonishing win against Boreham Wood, reiterated the influence such a dramatic victory will have on his side.

"We managed to convince ourselves that we can climb a huge mountain," he said.

"It will be a real huge clash between two very good teams for the level."