Just a handful of games stand between Notts County and a possible return to the third tier of English football for the first time in a little over a decade.

County were relegated from League One back in 2015, then, just four years later, from the Football League itself, spending the next four seasons, 2019-2023, in the National League, the top tier of non-league football.

Gaining promotion back to League Two, as runners-up, in 2023, has been followed by a fourteenth-place finish (2024) and sixth place finish (2025), they’re now looking to go better this time around, and claim one of three, automatic promotion spots.

To do so, they MUST WIN their remaining four matches, against Cambridge Untied (a), Barnet (h), Colchester United (a) and Bristol Rovers (h), and hope that at least one of their promotion rivals slips up.

Why? It’s a little tight in the upper echelons of League Two heading into the closing weeks of the season, with just three points separating the five sides between second and sixth.

Bromley are out in front, with the comfort of a seven-point lead on second place MK Dons (76pts), County are level with them, sitting third (76pts), quickly followed by Cambridge United (74pts), Swindon Town (74pts), and Salford City (73pts) – Cambridge having the benefit of a game in hand.

For Martin Paterson’s County side though, a little erratic on the form guide has proved costly of late, winning six and drawing four of their last ten outings, three of those losses in their last seven games.

They are scoring for fun though, netting some twenty-four goals over those ten games, hitting both Tranmere Rovers (5-0) and Cheltenham Town (5-2) for five, whilst also putting four past Accrington Stanley – they sure know where the back of the net is.

Fourteen different players, as well as two own-goals, have featured during the ten-game run, winger Jodi Jones leading the way with four of them, striker Alassana Jatta has three, along with two apiece for that of Lee Ndlovu (January signing from Barnet), Lucas Ness, and Tottenham Hotspur loanee, Tyrese Hall.

At the other end of the pitch, another January arrival, goalkeeper James Belshaw, has kept three sheets (conceding thirteen) in the last ten games, his input being as equalling important at the back, as of those firing goals from the front.

As has often been the case this season, County’s last four games have seen them follow defeat with victory (or victory with defeat); after putting the five past Cheltenham, a 3-0 loss was suffered away to Oldham Athletic (Mike Fondop-Talom with a brace), this was then followed by Jatta’s double in the 2-0 win at Harrogate.

A 2-1 reverse was then suffered away to fellow promotion hopefuls, Salford City, earlier this month, before the last outing saw Lucas Ness bag an unexpected brace in the 3-1 win over Newport County, Jayden Luker also netting.

For Ness, a summer 2024 signing from Charlton Athletic, it was not only his first goals for the club, but also the first goals of his playing career, mind he is a defender….

Now though, it’s all eyes on the last four games of the season, not just for County, but for those in-and-around them in the league table, with this Saturday (11 April) seeing the Magpies away to fellow promotion chasers Cambridge, MK Dons host leaders Bromley, and Salford City host seventeenth placed Gillingham, with Swindon Town away to thirteenth placed Colchester United under the Friday (10 April) Night Lights.

*Article provided by Peter Mann (Senior Correspondent).

*Main image @Official_NCFC Notts County Manager Martin Paterson.