North Ferriby captain Liam King celebrates with Nathan Jarman after they booked their trip to Wembley. Photo: David Gill
North Ferriby United booked their place at Wembley for the FA Trophy Final after holding their nerve in the penalty shoot-out against Bath City.
Ferriby will play former Football League outfit Wrexham after the 10-men Villagers took the game to penalties after 1-1 draw on the day after extra-time.
Billy Heath’s side won 4-2 in the shootout which prompted a pitch invasion at the packed Eon Visual Media Stadium.
The Villagers started in the worst possible way, after just 90 seconds their Wembley dream took a major dent after Nick McCootie headed home Sekani Simpson’s cross for the visitors to put the score at 1-0.
Ferriby pushed for an equaliser sooner than later to revitalise their final hopes, Tom Denton came close with his header from a Sam Topliss cross minutes later, only for Jason Mellor to pull off a fine save in the Bath net.
Bath escaped another scare after 15 minutes of end-to-end football. Chas Hemming’s clearance out of the area went upwards rather than outwards. Ryan Kendall watched patiently for the ball to come down before Mellor swooped in to save his side from conceding a freak goal.
The game found it’s pace and both sides began to battle in the midfield, chances came far and few between.
But, Ryan Kendall seized a pass from captain Liam King, only to be denied by Mellor on his initial shot and the rebound, as the Bath number one looked almost unbeatable.
But Ferriby did beat the keeper before half time, Josh Wilde’s looping ball in found the head of Denton, who headed past Mellor, only denied putting the game level by the post.
The Villagers came out of the second half pressing for an equaliser, as they knew that the clock was ticking away at their Wembley dream.
After 10 minutes of persistent pressure Ferriby finally found a golden opportunity to put the tie level. Jason St. Juste crossed in from the byline for a waiting Denton, whose header seemed goal-bound until Phil Walsh to cleared it off the line to deny the Villagers an equaliser.
On the hour mark the Villagers were handed a lifeline as Denton was taken out by Walsh and a penalty was awarded.
Captain Liam King had responsibility and came forward to take probably the most important kick of the club’s history, as manager Billy Heath hid away under his coat in the subs bench.
But King made no mistake of putting his side back in the tie, as his emphatic penalty brought back to life the hopes of his side’s final place, sending Mellor in the wrong direction and hitting the roof of the net in style.
And just five minutes later King almost put the score at 2-1. His deflected shot almost found its way into the back of the net, only for Mellor to race to the other side of his goal and deny Ferriby take the lead by a fingertip.
As both sides sat back with extra time looking imminent, Danny Clarke was given a chance to put Ferriby a goal up with five minutes on the clock, but the winger looked in two minds as his cross-come-shot across the face of goal went wide.
As the tie went into extra time you could feel the tension at the Eon Visual Media Stadium.
Ferriby were reduced to ten men mid-way through the first period of extra time. Russell Fry was shown his second yellow card, and the Villagers knew they had to park the bus and hold on until penalties.
But just 4 minutes later they had the ball in the back of the net, Gregg Anderson slid home after a goal-mouth scramble, but Bath were saved by the whistle as Anderson had fouled Mellor in the process.
In the second period of extra time Bath were kept at bay by the defensive solidity of Heath’s men, but substitute Ross Stearn had a golden opportunity to steal the tie late-on, only for Danny Hone to save his side with his clearance off the line and put the game to penalties.
But Heath’s men made no mistakes in the shootout. Liam King stepped up to add to his penalty that already put the game level, with Nathan Jarman and Adam Bolder scoring also it looked almost impossible to throw away their Wembley trip.
Jason St Juste scored the winning penalty as the Ferriby faithful flooded onto the pitch, and the Villagers had booked only the second visit to Wembley in their history.
North Ferriby manager Billy Heath:
“We never do it easy, we always give ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb, but the last thing you want to do is start off on the back foot.
“We wanted to get the crowd up, we wanted to get on the front foot and we concede after I think it was about 90 seconds, so you’re thinking, yeah that’s about right for us.
“After that I think we took charge of the game, if you look at the clear-cut chances, we’d win it hands down.
“If there’s one thing this bunch that we’ve put together has got is heart, and all I’ve been saying this week and at half-time is whatever happens today we stick together as a group and you look after each other and that’s what I’ve been saying since I came into the club.
“For this football club, you see it’s a tight ground, we were in the Evo Stik a couple of years ago, but to take a team to the trophy final is just unbelievable.
“I’ll say we’ll go and enjoy it and we’ll go and enjoy it and we’ll approach that game like we always do we’ll try and win.”
North Ferriby United: Nicklin, Topliss, Anderson (Wilson 111), Hone, Wilde, Clarke (Bolder 120), King, Fry, St. Juste, Kendall (Jarman 81), Denton. Subs unused: Nicholson, Peat.
Referee: David Webb
Attendance: 1,871
Man of the Match: Liam King