PURE BEDLAM AFTER NORWOOD MAGIC REVIVES THE LATICS DREAM

BEDLAM, pandemonium, carnage - perhaps a mix of all these and more.

- Matt Badcock

Finding the perfect word for the celebrations of Oldham Athletic fans, players and management when Kian Harratt’s cross one-bounced past everyone and nestled inside the far post is a near impossible task.

It was a chaotic outpouring of emotion and happiness. Their end of Wembley was already a swirling storm of noise and song from James Norwood’s equaliser just two minutes earlier.

Oldham’s bench emptied, players scattered in all directions, subs leapt and bounced around on the hallowed turf, boss Micky Mellon suddenly seemed halfway to the corner flag.

The pin-drop silence when Leon Parillon nodded Southend back into the lead 38 seconds into extra-time was a distant memory.

Then it was the Southend fans who were going crazy and adding to what had been a cacophony of constant noise from a record 52,115 National League play-off final crowd long before kick-off.

Whether the engineering work chaos that meant Wembley Park station’s closure had anything to do with it —and without that ridiculous situation the crowd would likely have been more - the stadium’s bowl felt full and in party mode long before kick-off.