Notts County record-breaker Macaulay Langstaff will take promotion over 50 goals

Record-breaking Notts County striker Macaulay Langstaff would be happy not to score another goal this season as long as his side win promotion back to the Football League.

Langstaff’s goals have fired the Magpies to the top of the National League ahead of a mouth-watering clash with rivals Wrexham on Monday.

Good Friday’s win over Wealdstone, where Langstaff broke the record for the most goals in a single fifth-tier season since the league was rebranded in 2015 with his 41st, saw them overtake Wrexham at the summit.

The two heavyweights clash at the Racecourse Ground on Easter Monday in a game that could well be a title – and automatic promotion – decider.

Langstaff has been dubbed the ‘non-league Haaland’ for his prowess this season, but he would give it all up in order to get over the line.

Asked whether 50 goals is a reasonable target between now and the end of the season, the 26-year-old replied: “I never set goalscoring targets since I have been playing, I feel like you can become complacent.

“Say if I set a target of 20 once I reached that I could have become comfortable and become less motivated. I never want to get into that space, I want to score as many goals as I can and then get to the end of the season and see if I am as happy or not.

“I don’t set targets, I am going to try and score as many goals as I can every game.

“That will be an unbelievable effort, nine goals in hopefully four games. I am not sure about that, but I don’t really care if I get 50, I just want to win every single game.

“If I don’t score another goal all season, I won’t care as long as we win every single game.”

If it is not Erling Haaland that Langstaff has been compared to then it is Jamie Vardy as the striker tries to make his way from non-league to the big time.

“To be named in the same sentence as these legends of the game and have your picture next to them in articles, it’s a bit of fun,” Langstaff said.

“Obviously we are levels apart, they are playing in the Premier League and scoring week in week out. I play at a lower level, but it is a bit of fun, I don’t take it seriously, but it does give me confidence.

“Everyone refers to the Vardy story, but how many Vardys have there been? Not many have gone on to do what he’s done, so I would be silly and naive to say that I will go on and achieve what he has achieved, it’s unbelievable.

“In terms of my ceiling, I am a goalscorer. I’d like to think I can carry the attributes through the leagues if I get the chance to play there.

“But I don’t like to think about that too much, I’m going to continue giving my best for Notts County and if we can move up the leagues I’ll try and focus on that when we get to it.”