David Beckham watches Michael Cheek win Bromley the Buildbase FA Trophy for the first time in their history.
By Richard Scott
Michael Cheek does what he does best and wins Bromley the FA Trophy
Four years after their heartbreaking defeat to Brackley Town, National League side Bromley returned to Wembley to finally lift the Buildbase FA Trophy.
Top scorer Michael Cheek did what he did best by scoring his 23rd goal of the season for the Ravens, which was enough to seal the victory for Andy Woodman’s side in front of former England captain David Beckham, who was in the hospitality suites alongside Hollywood owner Ryan Reynolds.
Roared on by a large contingent from North Wales, it was Wrexham who had the first chances of the game with their top scorer Paul Mullin having two good attempts at goal. However, he put his efforts straight at Ellery Balcombe. The Bromley goalkeeper deserves as much praise from their fans as Cheek does for Bromley being victorious as he made four fine saves to keep the reds out.
While at the other end, Cheek had Bromley’s best effort of the first half when he put a chance straight into Christian Dibble’s gloves.
Wrexham felt they should have had a penalty on 25 minutes when Jordan Davies broke through on goal before being brought down, and despite nearly 20,000 Wrexham fans protesting, referee Thomas Bramall was unmoved and allowed the game to continue.
If the first half was dull, then the second half burst into life with Mullin again having a couple of great efforts. The best one was an audacious effort from 40 yards out, thankfully for Balcombe it bounced over his crossbar.
At the other end of the pitch, Dibble made two great saves to deny Ali Al-Hamadi and Cheek. The chance from Cheek looked certain to hit the back of the net.
However, Dibble couldn’t stop Cheek from getting the game’s only goal of the game on 64 minutes. A long ball from Bromley caught out the Wrexham defence. Corey Whitely picked the ball up and advanced into the area before he then unselfishly squared it to Cheek who made no mistake in front of the Bromley fans.
He could have had a second shortly afterwards, however, he found his route to goal blocked by Dibble.
As the clock ticked towards full-time Wrexham threw everything at Bromley with forward Jake Hyde going close on a couple of occasions. The best saw Balcombe tip the ball over the crossbar when it looked as if Wrexham were set to score.
They thought they had done it in the final moments of injury time when Hyde found the back of the net. But with fans, owner Ryan Reynolds, Beckham and Will Farrell in the box cheering the goal was chalked off for offside.
What a win for Bromley, and it’s a day they will never forget. Meanwhile, Wrexham will no doubt say they have bigger fish to fry with the end of season playoffs, and a chance to return to the football league coming up next weekend.
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