Both Glossop North End and North Shields head into The FA Vase Final with added incentive to leave Wembley with silverware on their bus.
One side will be hoping it is second time lucky on Saturday, while the other will be looking to maintain the record of a region in one of non-League football’s most prestigious competitions.
Glossop North End reached the Final of The FA Vase in 2009, ultimately losing to Whitley Bay 2-0 in front of over 12,000 fans at a sun-baked Wembley.
Glossop North End v North Shields
The FA Vase Final 2015
3pm, Saturday 9 May
Wembley Stadium
Buy tickets here
North Shields, meanwhile, will not be short of north-east inspiration in a competition that their near-neighbours Whitley have won four times in the past 13 seasons.
This year’s Final will assume added poignancy as the Vase prepares to celebrate its 40th anniversary as a staple in the English football calendar.
Hoddesdon Town beat Epsom & Ewell in that first Final at the old Wembley back in 1975, but North Shields won the old FA Amateur Cup – the Vase’s predecessor – six years earlier.
They perhaps go into this Final as marginal favourites and can also boast of having a former Premier League star, in the shape of ex-Aston Villa and Blackburn midfielder Graham Fenton, in their Wembley dugout.
The match programme from the first FA Vase Final in 1975
Glossop will arrive at Wembley on a high, having already wrapped up the North West Counties League Premier Division title with four matches of the season remaining.
They can also, of course, draw on their 2009 experience when they were largely outplayed by a Whitley side that would go on to make history by winning the Vase in three successive seasons.
A number of Glossop players who experienced defeat in that Final will be running out under the Arch for a second stab at Vase glory on Saturday.
North Shields enjoyed a relatively stress-free semi-final passage to Wembley, beating Highworth Town of the Hellenic Football League Premier Division 3-0 over two legs.
North Shields skipper Kevin Hughes with Glossop's Dave Young
Glossop, conversely, did it the hard way, requiring a replay to get past Shaw Lane Aquaforce in the quarter-finals before beating St Austell narrowly in the last four, despite winning the first leg 2-0 away from home.
That, though, will count for nothing at Wembley, with both sides aware that there will be no safety net of a replay or a second leg.
With another large crowd expected, the players, managers and fans of both sides can look forward to a match that will live long in the memory.
If you want to be part of the crowd at Wembley on Saturday for one of non-League football's most prestigious cup finals, you can get your tickets online here priced at £15 for adults, £10 for OAPs/students and £5 children.
