Today I'm going back 17 years to 2005 and the FA Trophy Final at Villa Park, Birmingham between Grays Athletic and Hucknall Town. FA Trophy Finals have tended to be at Wembley Stadium since the very beginning in 1970 but the 2005 edition was played at Villa Park due to the ongoing construction of the new Wembley. The game was played in front of an audience of just 8,116.
Grays Athletic are based in Grays in Essex and, stone me, are nicknamed "the Gravelmen" and reached their zenith in the early noughties. In 2004/05 they were promoted from Conference (National League) South in it's very first season into the fifth tier of English football as well as reaching (and winning) the FA Trophy Final. The following season they reached the Trophy Final again and finished third in the National League, earning themselves a shot at the Play-Offs to join the Football League itself but their decline began at around that time. A couple of seasons of struggle in the National League ensued before they finished rock bottom in 2009/10 and resigned from the National League rather than taking relegation. They ended up taking their place in the Isthmian League Division 1 North (the 8th level of English Football) the following season, effectively being relegated three levels at a stroke. The club remains in the same division to this day, is now owned by the community and is rather unlikely to reach the heady heights of the National League again any time soon.
Hucknall Town are from Nottinghamshire and were known as Hucknall Colliery Welfare until 1987. They are unimaginatively nicknamed "Yellows" or even more unimaginatively "Town". Like Grays Athletic, Hucknall have similarly fallen on hard times since their appearance in the 2005 FA Trophy Final. At the time of that Final, Town could be found in The National League North (the fifth tier) but today they compete in the United Counties League Division 1 (the tenth tier). I wasn't able to find any footage of that Trophy Final to attach to my blog today but, with all due respects to Tony Christie, I did find an amusing version of "Is this the way to Amarillo" produced for the occasion by some Hucknall Town fans. "Is this the way to Aston Villa, we'll be wearing black and yella". Wonderful!
Grays long route to the Final involved beating Great Wakering Rovers 5-1 in the 1st Round, Windsor & Eton 4-1 in the 2nd and a 2-0 away win at Sutton United in the 3rd. They beat Havant & Waterlooville 5-0 in the 4th Round and won 4-2 away at Altrincham in the 5th . In the Quarter-Final Grays disposed of Exeter City 4-1 and then swept Burton Albion away in the Semi-Final winning 7-0 on aggregate. Meanwhile Hucknall beat Bracknell Town 4-0 in the 1st Round and Radcliffe Borough 2-1 in the 2nd before conquering Southport in the 3rd after a Replay. Another away tie, this time at Northwich Victoria, saw them win 1-0 in the 4th Round and they won away again in the 5th, this time 1-0 at Cambridge City. Hucknall got another difficult away tie in the Quarter-Final away at Hereford United but beat them after a Replay before winning both home and away in their two-legged Semi-Final against Bishops Stortford to reach the Final.
Grays manager and former Spurs apprentice, Mark Stimson has proven himself to be something of an FA Trophy specialist over the years and has now won the competition four times with three different clubs. Twice with Grays Athletic in 2005 and 2006, again in 2007 but this time with Stevenage and then, most recently, as manager of Hornchurch in 2021.
In the Final, Grays took the lead midway through the second half via John Martin but were pegged back by Hucknall's Danny Bacon after 77 minutes. There were no further goals and the game went to extra time and then to penalties. Even the penalties were level after five spot kicks each at four apiece before Grays converted their sixth penalty and Hucknall missed theirs. Dramatic? You bet!
CRB Match No. 1438
Comments
Post a Comment