FA Vase Final – 22 May 2021. Warrington Rylands 1906 FC 3 (Elliott Nevitt 25, 44 pen & 60)

The chance of going to cover a FA Vase Final at Wembley is something not to be sniffed at or missed.

Hat-trick hero Elliott Nevitt

Warrington Rylands 1906 FC were up against Binfield FC. You may have read my articles on how Rylands got there. Both clubs have reached heady heights as they have never reached Wembley before.

I didn’t fancy a drive to Wembley as I only got back from Scotland late Friday night, so it was on to trainline. We’ve all tried to book a train to get to an event as close as possible to the starting time and at best it can be straight forward and at other times nothing short of frustrating.

The match kick off was 12.15pm, so no surprise to see that there was no 7.20 am departure to Euston. It was either a 6.20 start or 8.20 and possibly get there late.

I arrived at Warrington Bank Quay station (with parking next door at a very reasonable price of £3 to hear the news that there were signaling problems at Milton Keynes. Those words Milton Keynes don’t go down too well, as I’m old enough to remember Wimbledon moving out there and being renamed Milton Keynes Dons. Those shenanigans would not be allowed today or at least you would hope not.

So what do I know about today’s opponents? Well erm…, they play in the Hellenic League Premier Division at Hill Farm Lane ground in Bracknell and are known as ‘The Moles’. The story goes that the club used to play at a cricket club, and the pitch was covered in mole hills so pre match the football team had to stamp down the mole hills in order to get the match started.

The forecast was for a cracking match with both sides on the attack. It could be anyone’s game if it were to go to a penalty shoot-out as both teams have had their fair share of penalty shoot-out success in this year’s FA Vase competition. Rylands have won three ties via a shoot-out whilst opponents Binfield have won four of theirs by the same means.

Now you may ask how did they get to the Final?

Rylands Path to Wembley

1st Qualifying Round Daisy Hill FC 2 - 5 Warrington Rylands FC

2nd Qualifying Round Warrington Rylands FC 6 - 0 Goole AFC

1st Round Warrington Rylands FC 2 - 0 Padiham FC

2nd Round Jarrow FC 1 - 1 Warrington Rylands FC

[Warrington Rylands FC won 5-4 on penalties]

3rd Round Longridge Town FC 1 - 2 Warrington Rylands FC

4th Round Shildon FC 0 - 0 Warrington Rylands FC

[Warrington Rylands FC won 5-4 on penalties]

5th Round Warrington Rylands FC 1 - 1 West Auckland Town FC

[Warrington Rylands FC won 3-1 on penalties]

QF Warrington Rylands FC

1 - 0

Hebburn Town FC

SF Warrington Rylands FC

2 - 1

Walsall Wood FC

Binfield Path to Wembley

1st round - Bye

2nd round - Newhaven 2-2 Binfield (Binfield win 4-1 on penalties)
Moore (2)

3rd round - Deal Town 1-4 Binfield
Helmore, Harris (2), Moore

4th round - Fakenham Town 2-2 Binfield (Binfield win 4-1 on penalties)
Helmore (2)

5th round - Hadley 0-0 Binfield (Binfield win 5-4 on penalties)

QF - Long Eaton United 0-5 Binfield
Moore (2), Ferdinand (3)

S/F - US Portsmouth 1-1 Binfield (Binfield win 4-3 on penalties)
Ferdinand

Rylands players trained at Derby County before making their way to London.

Lateral Flow Test, mug shot and photographer accreditation paperwork were all completed and I arrived at the check in. This was very quick and armed with a complimentary pack lunch consisting of chicken sandwiches, mars bar, crisps and fruit cocktail I made my way to the pitch.

I had my laptop with me so I could sort out the photos and upload some. But as we know there is always a spanner in the works, and I hadn’t switched it off properly so it had been sat in my bag and not surprisingly wouldn’t log me on. It works by facial recognition, so I couldn’t really blame it on having a haircut on the Friday or wearing a County face mask.

As expected, the match was end to end and very entertaining. Even with the reduced crowd the fans from both sides made themselves heard.

Binfield ladies

Elliott Nevitt went into the history book being the first player since 1979 to score a hat-trick in the FA Vase Final for Warrington Rylands who beat Binfield FC. In reply Binfield’s Liam Ferdinand scored two.

Nevitt had the ball in the back of the net but was ruled off side.

Joe Coveney flicked on Kane Drummond's cross to Elliott Nevitt who opened the scoring for Rylands.

Binfield almost levelled but GK McCall tipped the ball over the crossbar.

Liam Ferdinand equalised for Binfield just before half time.

Rylands immediately replied when Charlie Doyle was up ended in the penalty box. Nevitt stepped up to coolly slot the ball home from the penalty spot to make it 2-1 Rylands.

Half-time Rylands 2 Binfield 1

Fans

Liam Ferdinand pulled one back on 60 minutes, but Nevitt then bagged his hat-trick 7 minutes later from a corner to put Rylands in the driving seat.

This set up a nervy last 20 odd minutes as Rylands defended well and were quick on the counter-attack.

On 90’ the referee announced 6 add minutes and you could feel the tension in the air as Rylands hung on to secure a well-deserved victory.

Binfield: Chris Grace, Elliott Legg, Liam Gavin, Jamie McClurg, Dave Hancock, George Short, Tom Willment, Kensley Maloney, Sean Moore (c), Liam Ferdinand, Oliver Harris

Substitutes: Josh Howell on for Short 64’, Jack Thomson-Wheeler on for Legg 72’, Asa Povey on for Harris 72’

Substitutes not used: Jemel Johnson, Jack Broome, Phil Veal, Josh Helmore

Warrington Rylands: Graeme McCall, Jack Tinning, Warren Gerrard, Joe Coveney, Rick Smith, Gaz Kenny (c), Kane Drummond, Charlie Doyle, Andy Scarisbrick, Stephen Milne, Elliott Nevitt

Substitutes: Sam Sheen on for Coveney 62’, Tom Freeman for Tinning 76’, Freddie Potter on for Milne 89’

Substitutes not used: Paul Shanley, Callum Lees, Michael Emery, Joe Denman

Credit has to go to the Binfield players for staying on the pitch to watch the Rylands celebrations.

This is a massive achievement for Rylands players and managers Dave McNabb and Fraser Ablett and this success will bode well for the club next season as they will play in the Northern Premier League West; step 4 in the new league structure.