15 May 2023 , 06:00
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Macaulay Langstaff is English football's most coveted striker outside the Premier League – and high-wire specialists Notts County face a battle to keep him.
After the gut-wrenching drama of reclaiming their place as the oldest Football League club, the Magpies are bracing themselves for big-money offers to lure their record-breaking 42-goal striker away from Meadow Lane.
Langstaff is in no rush to leave, and at 26 he is relishing the chance to make his first League appearance in August.
But County manager Luke Williams fears gilded predators will be paddling up the Trent to lure his goal machine away – and Langstaff, whose contract has two years to run, admits his future is uncertain.
The £50,000 snip from Gateshead, whose sudden advent as a prolific poacher echoes late developer Jamie Vardy's rapid rise, said: “Who knows what the summer holds? All I know is that a year ago, Notts gave me a three-year contract.
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“They backed me, they put their money where their mouth is, they paid the money for me, they showed me the interest, they gave me the platform to do what I am doing.
“I genuinely love this club and I am so excited to see where this club can go. They have been unbelievable with me.
“A few years ago I was playing in the 11th tier. Did I think I was going to play full-time football? No. Did I think I was going to be a Football League player? Absolutely not.
“I have never played in the Football League before – a lot of the lads have. I cannot put into words what it means to get there.”
Williams, whose team was a bag of nerves at Wembley but richly deserved to follow Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds' Wrexham back into the 92-club mainstream for their endless supply of drama, is realistic about County's chances of holding on to Langstaff.
Archie Mair was the hero for Notts County at Wembley (Getty Images)He admitted: “We can fend off opponents that aren’t offering Macaulay a drastically improved, life-changing contract. We can survive those offers.
“But if it is an offer that is life-changing…now we sit and wait, anxiously anticipating offers coming in and to what level.”
Although Chesterfield were the better side in a gripping final, it would have been a travesty bordering on human rights abuse if County's 107 points and 117 goals in the regular season had not led to promotion.
Reynolds took his Wrexham players on a five-day party bender in Las Vegas after their epic title duel with the 'Pies – now County are off to Ibiza on a last-minute lads' package holiday.
They needed John Bostock's 88th-minute equaliser to force extra-time, and a freakish Ruben Rodrigues bouncing bomb to take it to penalties after the Spireites twice led through an Andrew Dallas penalty and Armando Dobra's superb hit.
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Williams pulled a masterstroke by hauling off regular No.1 Sam Slocombe and sending on 6ft 6in giant Archie Mair as sub-keeper for the shoot-out.
Notts County were promoted alongside Ryan Reynolds' Wrexham (Getty Images)Mair, on loan from Norwich, copied his Canaries mentor Tim Krul's blueprint for gamesmanship and heroics, sprawling to beat out Darren Oldaker and Jeff King's spot-kicks.
Wembley has not always been kind to Scottish goalkeepers, especially Frank Haffey, Stewart Kennedy and Jim Leighton. But Mair – who only joined the party 30 seconds from the end of extra time – stole the show like Krul at the 2014 World Cup, where Holland's sub keeper he saved two penalties against Costa Rica as a shoot-out specialist.
Mair said: “One of the first things I asked Tim, when I signed for Norwich, was about the time he did it at the World Cup. I remember watching it on TV as a 13-year-old. I knew I could play up a little bit, try to put them off, and thankfully it worked.
“At 6ft 6in I fill enough of the goal, and surely I was going to get in the way of at least one of them.”