Cheek 64
The Cheek of it! Big guns Wrexham turn up at Wembley Stadium with their A-list entourage in tow and it’s little ol’ Bromley who take the spoils.
Hollywood actor owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney and their pal David Beckham watched on from their Wembley box but Andy Woodman’s Ravens hadn’t read the script with Michael Cheek’s 64th-minute winner earning the Kent side a first ever FA Trophy success.
And it was richly deserved too as although their Box Office owners and swathes of supporters turned up for the grand occasion, their team never really did.
That said, they were still indebted to keeper Ellery Balcombe for a tremendous save to deny Jake Hyde late on, while Hyde also had a last-minute equaliser controversially chalked off for offside.
Up until then, Woodman’s men defended like Trojans, keeping Wrexham’s high-profile strike force at bay, and enjoyed the better of an otherwise disappointing game of few chances.
They settled the quicker with Corey Whitely making a menace of himself from the off, making the most of pockets of space behind the front two.
But it was Wrexham who should have gone in front on 15 minutes when Paul Mullin broke down the right channel and pulled the ball back for the on-rushing Jordan Davies, but the young midfielder shot straight at Balcombe when he should really have done better.
Wrexham’s feared front two of Mullin and Ollie Palmer were left to feed off scraps as Bromley matched them man for man.
Woodman’s men suffered a setback on the stroke of half time when defender Omar Sowumni was stretchered off with what looked like a shoulder injury following a rather innocuous aerial clash in the Wrexham box.
It had to get better in the second half and Wrexham, spurred on by playing in front of their vociferous support, certainly clicked up a gear from the restart without really threatening Balcombe’s goal.
But for all their early second half pressure it was Bromley who twice went closest to breaking the deadlock twice within a minute. First, Ali Al-Hamadi saw his 20-yard effort palmed away by Dibble, then, seconds later, Cheek found space inside the box to squeeze an angled shot inside the post but Dibble again came to the rescue, parrying the ball to the safety of a corner.
Finally, on 64 minutes, Bromley found a way through. A long ball from Byron Webster set Whitely free down the right channel and he coolly laid the ball off for top scorer Cheek to slot into the roof of the net from eight yards. Cue pandemonium.
Whitely almost conjured up a second with a centre from the by-line which needed to be scrambled clear by Wrexham defence with Cheek on the prowl and it was clear the Welsh contingent were rattled.
Roared on by the red army behind the goal, the Dragons upped the ante again but it was clear it wasn’t to be their day when Davies rolled a dangerous cross right across the face of goal with no-one there to supply the finishing touch.
Cheek went off ten minutes from the off to raptuous applause from the Bromley fans but it was keeper Balcombe who deserved an equal share of the plaudits after superbly tipping Hyde’s close-range header over the bar as Wrexham laid siege in the final minutes.
It looked like being the final twist until Wrexham conjured up one last big moment – Reece Hall-Johnson’s cross from the right somehow finding its way to Hyde to nod home from close range but the striker was adjudged to have strayed offside by referee Thomas Bramall.
This was to be Bromley’s day, while Wrexham’s attentions now turn to the push for promotion where more big occasions await.
BROMLEY (3-5-2): Balcombe 8; Sowumni 7 (Partington 45), Webster 8, Bush 8; Coulson 7, Bingham 7 (Trotter 76), Vennings7, Forster 7, Whitely 9; Cheek 7 (Bloomfield 80), Al-Hamadi 7. Subs not used: Cousins, Alabi, Dennis, Cawley.
WREXHAM (3-5-2): Dibble 8; O’Connor 6 (Jarvis 75), Tozer 7, Cleworth 7; McAlinden 6 (Hall-Johnson 74), Young 6 (Hyde 86), Davies 7, J Jones 7, McFadzean 6; Palmer 6, Mullin 6. Subs not used: Camp, French, D Jones, Ponticelli.
Ref: Thomas Bramall
Att: 46,111
