James Belshaw: Notts County goalkeeper and lifelong fan on ‘surreal honour’ of reaching Wembley final

From a young age, Belshaw sat in that towering stand at Meadow Lane as a supporter.

For years he followed the club home and away – which included travelling to Wembley as a five-year-old with family to watch the Magpies beat Ascoli to win the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1995, then lose to Bradford in the third-tier play-off a year later.

He was also there in 2023 as a supporter when Notts County reclaimed their mantle of the oldest Football League club in the world when they beat Chesterfield on penalties in the National League promotion final.

Three years earlier he had also been at Wembley for the same showpiece event – the major difference that time being that he was in goal for Harrogate Town as the Yorkshire side beat his beloved Magpies in the behind-closed-doors decider during the Covid pandemic.

“That was a tough one,” he said. “Everyone knows what this club means to me, but unfortunately as a footballer you’re paid to do the job for the club that you’re employed at.

“Now to be on that pitch for Notts, is dream-come-true stuff.

“All the promotion heroes I’ve seen over the years, and then now you get to represent Notts County at Wembley – it doesn’t get much better than that.”

And the day in London is set to be a momentous one for the Notts County-loving Belshaw family in more ways than one.

His daughter Isla will be celebrating her third birthday on the same day.

“She’s told me she wants a pink cake and pink balloons,” Belshaw said.

“We need to figure out how to get that down to Wembley. To have her there, to have my family there and to be wearing a Notts County shirt is just a dream come true.”

Since the moment Belshaw signed for Notts from Harrogate in January, he has taken every opportunity to talk at length about what it means to play for a club that his family has supported for generations.

There are the tales of him at Meadow Lane as a matchday mascot and even playing for the club as a junior – although he had to leave Nottingham to get his start in the game with Duke University in the United States before returning to England to join Walsall.

“I love this football club,” he said.

“I’d make teas for this football club, whatever it needs me to do. But the fact that I get to play in goal is a little bit more special.”