Jodi Jones stars as Notts County win promotion at Wembley

Jodi Jones turned a career once slowed by repeated knee injuries into a Wembley masterclass, carrying Notts County back into League One with a 3-0 win over Salford City in the League Two play-off final.

In sweltering 36C heat at Wembley Stadium, before 30,851 spectators, Jones created the opener for Alassana Jatta, delivered the free-kick that led to Lucas Ness’s second goal, and then scored the third himself in the 70th minute. The performance was so complete that he earned a standing ovation when he was replaced in the 85th minute, a fitting salute for a winger who had gone more than five years without starting a league game.

For Notts County, the result ended an 11-year wait to return to the third tier and sealed promotion to Sky Bet League One for the first time since the club came out of the National League in 2023. It also gave County fans another Wembley memory to carry home: this was their third promotion in four EFL play-off finals, a record that speaks to how often the club has found its way through the most pressured path available.

Jones’s route to this point has been defined by rehabilitation and patience. His injury history includes cruciate ligament setbacks in November 2017, November 2018 and September 2020, and reporting has previously noted he went more than five years without starting a league match after first being hurt while playing for Coventry City in League Two. That long stretch without regular starts makes the scale of his Wembley impact sharper, because this was not just a bright afternoon from a gifted winger. It was the end product of years spent rebuilding a body and a career that once looked broken.

Notts County head coach Martin Paterson called Jones a “magician” and praised the flair he produced in tandem with the work of teammates who made space for him to decide the final. Salford City, watched by co-owners David Beckham and Gary Neville, could not match that level across the pitch and now face an eighth season trying to escape League Two, still searching for a first-ever promotion to the third tier.

For Jones, the win added another Wembley success to a career that had been interrupted by serious injury but not defined by it. It also gave Notts County two promotions in four seasons, with Jones at the heart of both.