Liam Daish, the Ebbsfleet United manager, had pleaded to the MyFootballClub website owners of the Blue Square Premier club that he be allowed to do it his own way for the FA Trophy final at Wembley. They agreed to put on hold the much-trumpeted experiment of supporters voting on team line-ups and tactics.

And on Saturday afternoon his team let the immaculately suited Daish carry the distinctive trophy down the steps from the royal box after masterminding this victory over Torquay United. The Devon club were left with a double dose of disappointment after their defeat by Exeter City in the Blue Square Premier play-offs semi-finals last Monday.

Daish challenged anyone to question that the triumph underlined the continuing progress the club have made under his stewardship before acknowledging the impact made by the takeover by MyFootballClub and the money generated by nearly 30,000 members, all paying a £35 subscription.

“It helped to sustain full-time status at Ebbsfleet, which enabled us to keep training day in, day out, when we could so easily have gone back to part-time football and had the budget slashed, which would have been a disaster,” he said.

That the Ebbsfleet supporters outnumbered those of Torquay in the 40,186 crowd was testament to the worldwide following that the club have acquired. “To see 25,000 people decked out in Ebbsfleet colours was fantastic — our average is about 1,000,” Daish said. “Now we’ve got to kick on. I just hope that at our first home game next season they haven’t all gone. I’m not expecting 25,000, but it would be nice to get about 2,000 and then we can compete with the gates of the clubs that were in or near the play-offs.”

The match-winning goal was scored in the 45th minute by Chris McPhee, a Torquay player last season, who struck four minutes after having had a penalty saved by Martin Rice. The penalty was created by the pace of Luke Moore, 20. The forward was needlessly brought down in the area by Rice as he ran away from the Torquay goal. And the winner was created by the even younger legs of John Akinde, 18, another home-grown product of the Kent club.

Akinde chased down a seemingly lost cause after a clearance over the top by Sacha Opinel, muscling possession off a dithering Chris Todd and crossing to the far post, where McPhee arrived at the gallop to crash the ball past Rice. “John’s blessed with strength and pace and he won a ball that he had no right to,” McPhee said. “I’ve got a lot to thank him for. He was magnificent. I felt he deserved the man-of-the-match award.”

That accolade went instead to McPhee, who dedicated his goal to Paula, his sister, who suffers from ME, the chronic fatigue syndrome, and felt well enough to attend the match in a wheelchair only at the last minute.

Torquay had started the match brightly and Elliot Benyon wasted a headed chance in the second half supplied by a cross from the ever-dangerous left foot of Kevin Nicholson. The afternoon, however, belonged to the vibrant young talents of Ebbsfleet, Paul McCarthy, their splendid 36-year-old captain and central defender, and Daish, who amid the brouhaha of the takeover has not let his focus waver from instilling discipline and spirit into his fast-developing team.

Ebbsfleet United (4-4-2): L Cronin — P Hawkins, J Smith, P McCarthy, S Opinel — C McPhee, M Bostwick, N Barrett, S Long (sub: G MacDonald, 84min) — J Akinde, L Moore. Substitutes not used: S Mott, C Eribenne, M Ricketts, G Purcell. Booked: McCarthy, Smith, Moore.

Torquay United (4-4-2): M Rice — L Mansell, C Todd, S Woods, K Nicholson — R D’sane (sub: E Benyon, 60), S Adams, C Hargreaves, C Zebroski — T Sills (sub: K Hill, 88), L Phillips (sub: D Stevens, 46). Substitutes not used: C Robertson, M Hockley. Booked: Rice.

Referee M Atkinson
Attendance 40,186

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