We're counting down to Saturday's Trophy final replay with memories from fans, players and officials, and today thanks to "In the Dying Seconds", Chris Sowerby remembers the day.

Saturday's re-play starts at 3pm, we'll be featuring all 120+1 minutes of action.

Chris Sowerby – “We had a brilliant view of the ball as it looped up into the air”

At 2-0 down to Gateshead at half time in the first leg, all the planning and excitement of a third Wembley trip seemed to be lost forever until a certain lanky Southerner called Liam Hatch had other ideas and he produced a Captain Marvel second half and we took a slender lead up the A1 the following week.

The Gateshead away tie was memorable for next to nothing as I recall, but I do remember the celebrations at full time with Jamie Chandler leading the mad antics. We were off to Wembley for the third time and surely this was our turn for glory!

The plans were carefully put together, early train, drink in London, match and a crazy night in the capital celebrating a Darlo win and luxury accommodation at the famous Premier Inn somewhere in the City.

Bank Top Station was the meeting place for the squad for the day which included seasoned professionals like Dave Hardisty (big Davy) Warren Moncur (Wozza) Brother David (Sowerby) and Crazy Rod who brought along his financial advisor for the trip. We decided to get a train just after 6am as you never know what could happen on the way down south and we also wanted to have a “quiet drink” before the game.

We all assembled for the planned weekend and our contrasting luggage was the first laugh we had on the day. Some of us turned up with sports bags containing change of clothes, toiletries and some food and drink for the long journey, another had an Aldi bag with a toothbrush and one just had a selection of beer and a jacket.

On arrival at King Cross the excitement kicked in and we met several other travelling parties of fans so it was only sociable that we headed off to the nearest boozer to taste the delights of Southern ale. After a few stops it was decided to go to our 5 star Premier Inn hotel to check in and dump the bags (or not). As seasoned London travellers we all got completely mixed up until a friendly chap from Eastern Europe helped out the team and we all acquired an Underground ticket that could go anywhere!

On arrival at the hotel we explained to the check in desk that we were there to see Darlo win at Wembley but sadly she had never heard of us and just asked if we wanted an early morning call or a newspaper - thankfully all credit cards were accepted so it was a leisurely freshen up period which was reduced from thirty minutes to five as this was valuable drinking time.

After heading back into London we travelled around a few pubs mixing with Mansfield fans and taking every opportunity to explain to London folk that we were the mighty Darlo and we were coming to win the Cup - sadly nobody took any notice of us. A healthy breakfast of fry up and beer was consumed along the way as we needed to keep our strength up on this famous day.

The final Tube ride over to Wembley (or somewhere close) had one of the more hilarious episodes ever recorded by our group. A very friendly and loud West Indian gentleman boarded the Tube and joined in our conversation, and it turned out he was a very keen performer (unsigned) so we had an impromptu performance from him which was frankly rubbish, but a great laugh. He promised to meet up with us on the evening but I believe he was busy preparing for the next X Factor auditions.

Next job was to meet up with Mark Eager, another seasoned fan who had diverted his journey home from a family holiday to land in London before travelling over to Wembley. So now the team was complete and ready for the famous walk down Wembley Way. On arriving at Wembley it was great to meet up with my son Tom who was banned from coming down early so had travelled with his uncle John on a later train. It was great to get a picture of us all on Wembley Way.

We were probably in the stadium for around 2pm as we wanted to soak in the atmosphere as much as possible and quite frankly I was shattered by the early start and booze we had already consumed. The sight of the team coming out of the famous Wembley tunnel was one to remember forever and the 10,000 fans gathered cheering the lads on were frankly brilliant on the day.

The game holds few memories for me, I always fancied us to win as we were a stronger team than Mansfield. I do recall poor Chris Moore losing his teeth early on and Gary Smith turning awkwardly and never playing again and Tommy Wright missing several chances which would have won the game for us. The only moment I thought we had scored was when the wonderful Marc Bridge Wilkinson hit the post when it looked in all the way.

With the end in sight, what now goes down in history as the most important goal scored by a Darlo player occurred. Sitting behind the goal, we had a brilliant view of the ball as it looped up into the air from Tommy Wright, just willing someone to nod home and take the glory - enter Chris Senior the most “vertically challenged” player in the professional game. He had never previously needed to head the ball as it had never reached him at his 5 feet and a bit frame, a perfect jump and strong header and the ball looped into the net!

The celebration seemed to last ages but I do recall jumping on poor Tom and then Davy jumping on me (I am still seeing the physio) and everyone just speechless at the sight of the Wembley clock only showing a few seconds left. One last scramble in our box and the best referee in the world blew for full time and everybody around went frankly crazy. I personally felt like the famous commentator when England were beaten by Norway back in the 80s, so many painful memories but finally we had won a major trophy ... our boys did us proud !

The after match celebration were brilliant, Trophy aloft the team were as jubilant as the fans. I recall John Campbell jumping into the crowd to try and find Wozza’s son Callum as he wanted to give him his shirt, the sweat and tears we had endured were all worth it !

As we took the atmosphere in for the final few minutes it was clear that we had a brilliant team and a fantastic supportive chairman who was taking this club to another level ...How little did we know?

On leaving the stadium the joy was unbelievable and it was hard not to feel sorry for the Mansfield fans making their way to their assembled coaches, if memory serves we wished them all the best in our unique Darlo way. Since leaving the stadium something felt a bit strange and on inspection I had a massive lump on my left shin which looked horrendous. I do recall bashing it on the seat in front when Senior scored but had no pain only a massive big lump, this was medically explained as a massive release of adrenalin mixed with alcohol which numbed the pain for a few days.

At every point of the evening we took the time to educate the London population on all things Darlo but most of them completely ignored us and looked strangely uninterested. The evening took a step in the right direction when we found a Worlds End Pub which had decent Southern beer and loud music. Several hours later the plot was hatched for a new game which would be a hit on any TV show – ringing random people and singing football songs at them. This was a great laugh as work colleagues, family and any other person selected from six phones would be subject to these late night calls from drunken Darlo fans, sadly I do believe poor Martin Gray was selected and subjected to a call along with other famous people in football .

At around midnight we headed back to the hotel and when my eyes closed it had been a brilliant day which would live long in the memory. The Sunday morning started with Brother Dave thanking me for keeping him awake most of the night with my snoring, he was obviously mistaken as I’ve never heard any noise coming from me during any night.

The next morning it was a hearty breakfast at the hotel and some footie banter with some Hartlepool fans that were in London for some meaningless game in Division 1. The walk to the nearest Tube station was interrupted by Wozza needing to collect his winnings from Ladbrokes (very unusual), and as he entered into the shop his overnight bag was thrown up a convenient tree and got stuck around 20 feet up. On returning Warren showed off his few quid then realised he needed to climb this tree in the middle of some high street to recover his bag. After recovering from the sheer laughter of the first hour of Sunday in London we found another pub to lubricate the throat before Brother Dave and I left the main group to travel back to Darlington.

The journey back was uneventful and most of my time was spent looking back at the