It was oh so Stimple for the trophy king of the Noughties

WHO won the first competitive silverware at the new Wembley? Who won four FA Trophies in the 2000s, including three in a row as a manager and at three different venues?

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The answer to all three is Mark Stimson – a name to grace any isolation NonLeague quiz. His love affair with the FA Trophy began as a player in the decade’s second final, and first to be played away from Wembley as the famous stadium was under redevelopment.

Villa Park was the chosen replacement. The 2001 final saw the midfielder provide an assist for Ben Chenery’s timely first goal for Canvey Island in their 1-0 victory over Forest Green Rovers – and Stimson recalls the celebrations afterwards where he took a swipe at the perception of their team.

“I was looking at a picture from that game the other day,” he told The NLP. “I’m in a white t-shirt saying: ‘the pub team from Essex have only done it’.

“I wore it to the parade. I always thought it was a harsh label because we had a lot of good players, a lot of ex-pros who could still pass the ball about.

“I had good memories of Villa Park. I only played twice for Tottenham and one was at Villa Park. It was nice to go back about 12 years later.”

In 2005, he was back in Birmingham again, this time as manager of inaugural Conference South winners Grays Athletic, who had scored 31 goals in seven ties, to go with their 118 in the league.

A training camp trip to Spain ten days before the final didn’t go to plan following an episode which forced Stimson to omit his leading marksman.

“There was a little incident where a couple of players had a debate, and as a result I didn’t play Leroy Griffiths in the final,” he added. “He was devastated. I got a bit of stick about it, the press didn’t think we took the trip seriously, but we trained really hard.”