Don McDermott reports from a thrilling afternoon at the national stadium…
A football stadium is a lovely, peaceful sight an hour before the start of a match. The pitch is fresh and gleaming from an earlier downpour, the seats are a vast sea of bright red.
But it’s also a deceptive sight, particularly when the stadium is Wembley and the match is the FA Trophy Final between Wrexham and North Ferriby. It may look peaceful now, but it is going to be buzzing very soon. The music coming over the loudspeakers tells us the story that this is game day and we have 90 minutes of tense football ahead of us.
The fans from Wrexham and North Ferriby start to file in, ignoring the continuing rain. The mascots are here as well — the dragon of Wrexham walks around waving a Welsh flag and cheerfully hugging the security guards. Every little moment seems to be magnified here at Wembley. The quietness is loud with anticipation.
About 45 minutes before kick-off, the atmosphere really starts to come alive. More fans are piling into the stadium ends, and when the players make their first appearance, there is a massive roar. It’s startling in a way, but at the same time I’d been expecting it. I could almost hear the thundering of voices when the stadium was empty. I know football fans. I know their passion.
This is the second time that I, an American recently transplanted across the pond, have been to an English football match. The first match I attended was Millwall v Blackburn at the Den, and I remember being slightly disappointed by the small turnout — until the Millwall fans started singing. I then realised that football fans are capable of making more noise and creating a better atmosphere than any other group of people in the world.
The Wrexham fans here at Wembley are just like the Millwall fans. There are only ten thousand of them, but they are cheering like a much larger crowd, over the blaring music, over the murmur of the people around me in the press lounge.
I am already convinced that there is nothing to compare to a FA Trophy final at Wembley, and the match hasn’t even started yet.
Ten minutes until the big moment. The Wrexham fans start cheering and chanting again for no apparent reason, vigorously waving their chequered flags. There is another ear-splitting roar when the teams officially march onto the field.
The energetic Wrexham fans begin to chant a single word – their team’s name. It’s nothing more than that, but there’s so much feeling behind it.
Back in the United States, I never came across anything like this. I’ve watched baseball, American Football, university basketball and even university rugby 7s. Fans cheer, but they don’t have the same kind of passion, and they certainly don’t sing or chant for the entire game.
The match kicks off, and the Wrexham fans continue to deafen me.
When Wrexham are on the attack, it’s amazing to look at the opposite end of the stadium and see that bright, empty grass and the rows of empty seats, while listening to the roar of the Wrexham fans in my right ear. It’s a fascinating contrast, showing that although this is a small crowd for Wembley, this match means a lot to these two teams and their fans. It’s non-league football at its finest.
Again, it’s the Welsh fans who are particularly amazing. They’ve even brought a band with them, which begins to make itself heard in the 10th minute, just one minute before Louis Moult scores to put Wrexham ahead. As the cross comes to Moult, the fans begin a building roar of anticipation.
And then he scores and the crowd goes wild.
To be honest, a football match itself is often not as exciting as the fans and the atmosphere they create, particularly in a stadium like Wembley. I now understand why my friends have always told me that in order to understand and appreciate football, you have to go to the match, not just watch it on the telly.
That’s not to say that the FA Trophy final was not scintillating in its own right. After Wrexham went 2-0 up, North Ferriby rallied to level the match, with their second goal coming with just four minutes left.
When the second goal went in for North Ferriby, their fans suddenly showed that they could be vocal as well, and when Ryan Kendall scored in extra time to give North Ferriby the lead, there was a sense of shock throughout the stadium. You couldn’t believe what you were seeing. For the rest of extra time, I sat there thinking that surely this was the end of the match. It was a fantastic comeback from North Ferriby.
But there was also a sense buzzing around the stadium that this match wasn’t over yet. And with two minutes to go in extra time, Wrexham scored to level the match to 3-3. The Wrexham fans went wild, while the North Ferriby players collapsed on the pitch.
In the press box I fell back in my seat and put my hands on my head, in tandem with just about everyone else in the stadium, I would imagine. The feelings in Wembley were all in a jumble. I got the impression that everyone had been expecting Wrexham to score — and at the same time they couldn’t believe it had actually happened.
As if everyone wasn’t already suffering from a sudden increase in blood pressure, we then went to penalties. And of course, there had to be more than five penalties each, and the match went to sudden death.
When North Ferriby goalkeeper Adam Nicklin saved the Wrexham penalty that gave his side the victory, though, I had reached such a level of excitement that I was almost calm. Over the span of the last four hours, I had become accustomed to being utterly amazed.
So this match, I can safely say, lived up to the atmosphere. The atmosphere at Wembley that day was beautiful. And that is why it’s a beautiful game.
Don McDermott can be reached at u1414323@uel.ac.uk or on twitter @McDermott_Sport.