Archie's Moment Under the Wembley Arch

 

An A4 size-programme (£6) at a stadium that won't allow bags bigger than A4.

Hopperational Details
Date & Venue	Saturday 13 May 2023 at Wembley
Result	Chesterfield 2 Notts County 2 aet Notts County win 4-3 on penalties
Competition	National League (Step 1) Promotion Playoff Final
Hopstats	My 25th visit to the refurbished stadium. Sadly, I didn’t keep records of visits to the original but it was around ten.
Context
The teams that finished second and third have reached the final. Notts County amassed over 100 points and their battle with Wrexham gained a good deal of interest and publicity. They won their play-off semi-final against Boreham Wood in very dramatic style. 0-2 down at half-time, they drew level with a goal timed at 90+7 minutes and then won it with one timed at 120. Chesterfield also needed extra-time to see off Bromley in their semi-final, by the same scoreline. Bromley had been reduced to ten men but had equalised in stoppage time to force the extra half-hour.
In One Sentence
A game of high drama, if not always of high quality, and another example of Notts County’s resilience under pressure at the end of this season.
So What?
These two clubs were looking to return to League Two after five and four seasons respectively at Step 1. For Chesterfield it was a fourth consecutive season of reaching the playoffs, but the first final. Notts County are back, Chesterfield have to try again next year.
Pre-match Entertainment
An urban walk of around 5 miles from Harrow plus another couple around the stadium as I continue to mix football-watching with exercise. Then a similar walk back by a slightly different route including between the many and varied buildings of Harrow School.
Match Report
This game has already had plenty of coverage so I’ll be brief on detail. It went to penalties after two Notts County equalisers. A substitute goalkeeper, Archie Mair, brought on in the 120th minute, saved two of the first four Chesterfield penalties. This gave Notts County, taking them after Chesterfield had gone first, two chances to win it, and they fluffed the first as John Bostock’s Panenka-style attempt hit the bar. Cedwyn Scott made no mistake with the final penalty and the stadium divided into joy and despair. We’d reached this point because of a somewhat fortunate equaliser in the 118th minute. Ruben Rodrigues’ first-time shot hit the ground and bounced up and over keeper Ross Fitzsimons to bring the scores to 2-2. This was the second late equaliser, the other one being a better moment in the 88th minute for Bostock as his direct free-kick evaded Fitzsimons, who will feel he should have saved it. The best goal of the day was a superb curling strike by Armando Dobra which had given Chesterfield a 2-1 lead in the first period of extra time, giving County’s starting keeper Sam Slocombe no chance. He’d had a dodgy first few minutes of the game. First of all, he conceded an indirect free kick inside the penalty area, which came to nothing, and then he felled Andrew Dallas to concede a penalty. Dallas himself scored from the spot as Chesterfield took a 5th minute lead which they held at half-time, and in fact held until the 88th minute. In between, so many “what ifs”. The first half was a half of two quarters. Chesterfield looked stronger at first and County were rattled, but eventually got their wingers into the game. Even so, it was Chesterfield who created four or five incisive forays into the other penalty area, all coming to nothing as a final pass went astray or the move became too elaborate. In the second half, County’s Sam Austin shot over the bar from a good position and top scorer Macaulay Langstaff missed the target in extra-time from a good chance (though he would be a successful penalty-taker later). As a neutral, I tend to choose the west end of Wembley if I can because of previous bad experiences on sunny days at the other end. This put me in with the Chesterfield fans, and they were in very good voice throughout. I think the penny dropped that they were going to lose out when the second penalty was missed. Bostock’s Panenka meant that there would be one more high point on the roller-coaster. I hope they can get an automatic promotion slot next season. Credit to Notts County for redefining resilience.
Trying to Find Wembley Photos That I’ve Not Taken Before
Other Pix
Every goal, including the penalties, was at the other end of the stadium, so not much in the way of close-ups today. Crowd was around 38,000 - a great effort by the two sides.         Have you tried switching it off and on again?
Goalkeeper Top Colour Stats Update
Usually accompanied by a pre-match prediction on Twitter just before kickoff. Working towards being able to compute a respectable statistical significance test by the end of the season. The full keeper top performance table from my last 274 matches is here, on this separate page. Regular readers know how this works by now Pre-match Prediction based on Keeper Top Colour: Prediction: Notts County win Was the prediction correct? Yes % of correct predictions so far 45% (55 from 129)
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter! Quite a bit going on this month (see previous blogpost for more detail) starting with the Women’s FA Cup Final back here tomorrow at Wembley.