Spenny dreaming of one Moor Trophy triumph

There are around 20,000 people in the County Durham town of Spennymoor - and most of them are expected to converge on the club’s Brewery Field ground on Saturday before they make a pilgrimage to Wembley on Sunday.

Spennymoor Town are FA Trophy finalists, and they meet Aldershot Town at the world-famous ground this weekend, aiming to become only the second team, along with AFC Fylde, to win the FA Trophy and FA Vase - English non-league football’s two highest profile knock-out competitions.

On Saturday morning, the town will turn out to say farewell to Graeme Lee’s squad before heading south in a convoy of around 25 coaches, minibuses and campervans.

They go to the Home of Football as underdogs - but manager Graeme and the entire town is unfazed.

And he is taking inspiration from his dad Tony, himself a Moors legend.

Graeme said: “It’ll be a special day; I remember coming to Spennymoor Town when my dad – who passed away two years ago – was the club’s manager.

“To be managing the same club as him, and then achieving something like this to go to Wembley, and knowing I’ve been in the same changing room, the same dugout as him, it’s a special connection.

“He’s with me every day.

“Every game I go to, I have some ashes in my pocket.

“If it’s a new ground, I’ll sprinkle a few of his ashes, because this club is his family, and his life was football. 

“Hopefully nobody stops me, but I’ll be sprinkling some of his ashes at Wembley.”

On the road to Wembley, Spennymoor, who finished ninth in National League North, have already knocked out Boston United, Sutton United and Rochdale who, like Aldershot, are from the National League above them.

Nearly 1000 supporters made the trip to Rochdale’s Crown Oil Arena last month for a dramatic semi-final penalty shoot-out win, which saw the hosts lead twice before being pegged back by Aidan Rutledge’s equaliser in the dying minutes. 

On a day of incredible stories, Moors’ emergency loan goalkeeper Rohan Luthra saved Tarryn Allarakhia’s spot-kick to clinch a 5-4 spot-kick win and take his side to Wembley - sparking a pitch invasion and short-lived confrontation with unhappy Dale supporters.

Graeme said: “We’re a National League North team, we’re part-time and we’ve had to play a lot of full-time clubs.

“It probably feels easier to come into this game as the underdogs, because we know we’re at our best when it’s like that. It has served us well on our run so far.

“I know Aldershot will be well organised and a very good footballing team.

“They’re expected to win, but we know what we are and what we need to do. We have an intensity and a work ethic, but we’ve also got quality in the team.

“If everyone is on their game, we can beat anyone. This team has character and belief, but we know we have to perform. 

“It’s going to be a different occasion in a special arena, but I’ll tell the players not to get too caught up in the emotion, and just concentrate on the game, which I have no doubt they will.”

Spennymoor lifted the FA Vase back in 2013, beating Tunbridge Wells in the final when former player Jason Ainsley was in charge.

Known as ‘Mr Spennymoor’, Ainsley is now head of football at a club which still has Football League ambitions, having competed with the likes of Harrogate Town, Salford City and Stockport County and seen them make the climb into the top four tier in the last decade.

For now, though, Ainsley is enjoying the Trophy run like a fan, hoping they can achieve one more upset on their incredible cup journey and bring the trophy won by Gateshead last year back to the North East.

He said: “At Rochdale, I got a car park space at the ground and they put flyers on our car doors about transport to Wembley.

“I think they just expected to turn up and win but we equalised with the last kick of the game and then stood up under pressure and scored all five penalties.

“That game just summed up Spennymoor.

“There are probably a lot of teams punching far less above their weight than we are, and teams don't like coming to play us; our pitch has a little bit of a slope and we have players who never give up and have that North East fighting spirit.

“They don't want to come here on a Tuesday night.

“We get crowds of 1200 to 1300 from a population of 22,000, so the football team is a big part of what the community is all about.

“For a club the size of ours, to get to Wembley twice in 12 years, it's phenomenal.”

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