The 2025 FA Trophy Final - Aldershot Town 3-0 Spennymoor Town (Match Day Thread)

[brian bloomfield]

Also good to see Jordi come on as a sub, that was class

[Alex]

Also good to see Jordi come on as a sub, that was class

Nice to see Olly Scott back too and get a few minutes

[redblueuptoyou]

Also good to see Jordi come on as a sub, that was class

Plus Olly Scott - wasn’t expecting him to be back so soon.

The one blight is the flare(s) and people arguing over a video on Facebook showing one being let off. I dare say Wembley will be on the case.

I thought letting Harfield lift the trophy with AJ was also a classy move.

[Josh]

Also good to see Jordi come on as a sub, that was class

Plus Olly Scott - wasn’t expecting him to be back so soon.

The one blight is the flare(s) and people arguing over a video on Facebook showing one being let off. I dare say Wembley will be on the case.

I thought letting Harfield lift the trophy with AJ was also a classy move.

Sad to see one of our fans ended up in hospital before the game due to a flare.

Been an incredible day. Can't believe it

[C_Rage]

Still can’t believe it… now watching the game again.. dream come true that.. a Wembley win, what a special day, and great to spend it with so many people I have stood on the terraces with for many years…

[Aldershot]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... fe-fa-vase

It took Aldershot 99 years and two football clubs to reach Wembley and for almost exactly as many minutes on a sun-kissed May afternoon they made themselves entirely at home there, outnumbering their opponents in the stands and outplaying them on the pitch on their way to claiming their first FA Trophy.

Second-half goals from Jack Barham, Dan Ellison and Josh Barrett earned the National League side a 3-0 win over Spennymoor Town of the National League North, and secured for their manager, Tommy Widdrington, a dream end to a season temporarily derailed when he had two strokes in November. Widdrington was back in the dugout in less than two months having acquired, as he put it in the buildup to this game, “a certain sense of perspective”. This was an excellent, mature performance, whatever way you look at it.

“People will forget about me. That’s what happens in football. But they’ll never forget how I’ve made them feel, how my team’s made them feel,” Widdrington said. “Football’s a tough old industry. It kicks you up the backside a lot more than it pats you on the back. I’m going to enjoy being patted on the back the next few days.”

For Aldershot, who sprang from the ashes of Aldershot FC in 1992, this was an emphatic win but, from the moment they accidentally left two members of their starting XI behind when they set off for Wembley, not a completely carefree one. Spennymoor had beaten three National League sides on their way to Wembley and there were moments when they threatened another upset, notably creating the best chance of the opening half only for Rob Ramshaw to send a miserably meek shot rolling into Marcus Dewhurst’s arms from eight yards. “Nine times out of 10 he’d have put that in the back of the net,” said Graeme Lee, the Spennymoor manager. “We’ve had our moments throughout this cup run, and today we didn’t take them.”

The game shifted three minutes after the interval when James Henry ran down the right and crossed, and though the ball arrived slightly behind Barham he somehow contorted his leg into a position to get some kind of contact on it. His touch turned out to be perfect, sending it rolling gently but unstoppably into the corner of the net. “That goal changed everything,” said Lee. “It deflated us and took the energy out of us a little bit, and we couldn’t get back into it.”

Aldershot arrived in poor form, having won just one game since Barnham’s last-minute goal earned them a 2-1 win over 10-man Woking in the semi-finals. But once in front they played with the cocksure strut of champions and in the 71st minute Ellison glanced in a header from a corner to make the game all but safe. Three minutes from time Barrett, their player of the season, produced the kind of goal all players dream of scoring in this stadium, a splendid left-footed volley from the edge of the area that dipped over James and into the corner of the net. Tyler Frost and Maxwell Mullins both missed chances to score a fourth as the Moors flung themselves forward in search of consolation.

[redblueuptoyou]

Who did we almost leave behind ? Haha

[Alex]

Josh Barrett comment following today’s win -

"The fans deserve this, give our manager some money and we will be a League Two team in no time“

[Aldershot]

https://www.thefa.com/news/2025/may/11/ ... t-20251105

[Aldershot]

Aldershot Town celebrate after their Isuzu FA Trophy Final win over Spennymoor Town.

[Aldershot]

Aldershot's Dan Ellison scores his team's second goal in their FA Trophy Final win over Spennymoor Town.

[Aldershot]

Josh Barrett celebrates scoring their third goal in the Final.

[Alf W]

Brilliant day today, the support was unbelievable , never seen anything like it in all my 50 years of following Shots. This shows what many of us have known for a long time that this club has great potential.Very good performance today on the pitch with Josh my standout player

[Harlow Massive]

An excellent day, a very professional performance by everyone! A big well done Tommy and the team

[Aldershot]

https://www.theshots.co.uk/match-report ... or-town-n/