The FA Trophy A Potted History  

The FA Trophy Final at Wembley between Torquay and Ebbsfleet marked the 39th year of the competition which first began in the 1969/70 season.   

Introduced by the Football Association as a complement to the soon to be discarded Amateur Cup the FA Trophy is now the premier knockout cup competition in NonLeague football.

The Trophy has seen some great matches and many memorable moments since it was first won by Macclesfield Town in 1970.  Macclesfield were, at that time, a Northern Premier League club but would become one of eight Trophy winners that have gone on to achieve Football league status.  The others being; Scarborough, Kidderminster, Colchester, Wycombe, Cheltenham, Yeovil and Morecambe. 

From that list of winners it can be seen that the big guns have always taken the competition seriously and winning the FA Trophy is a prestigious achievement. 

The most victories by a single club is three with Scarborough (1973, 76 & 77), Telford United (1971, 83 & 86) and Woking (94, 95 & 97) all sharing that honour though, sadly, only Woking remain as a club with its original status.   

Woking’s success came under the leadership of the legendary Geoff Chapple; who masterminded an amazing five FA Trophy wins in seven years at two different clubs and all at the old Wembley Stadium.   

The three win as Woking manager being followed by two at Kingstonian to earn Chapple a place not only in Trophy history but also in the annals of Wembley.     

Chapple virtually owned the Trophy in the 1990s but he could never quite achieve the NonLeague Holy Grail of the Trophy and Conference double; though he came mighty close when Woking finished as Conference runners-up in 1994/95 ironically to Macclesfield Town the first winners of the competition.  Wealdstone becoming the first club to have achieve the coveted cup and league double in 1985. 

Mark Stimson topped Chapple in becoming the first manager to mastermind three successive Trophy victories though, like Chapple, Stimson’s success was achieved at two different clubs. 

Stimpson was at the helm as Grays Athletic won the trophy in 2005 and 06 with the 2005 win over Hucknallk town being the first time the destiny of the Tropy was decided by a penalty shoot-out.   

Stimpson then won his third Trophy final when he guided Stevenage to beat Kidderminster in the first final to be played at the new Wembley with a record Trophy crowd of 53,262 watching the five goal thriller.  Stimpson’s success at both Grays and Stevenage helped the young manager to graduate to the Football League when he took over at Gillingham. 

Interestingly the actual trophy itself dates back to the early 1900s when it was presented to the FA to be used as a challenge trophy to boost the popularity of football in America.  But, the proposed triangular tournament between England, USA and Canada never took place.