In addition to this, it has also been much maligned in some quarters in recent years following the admission of a number of Premier League Under-23 sides - but the Checkatrade Trophy remains a regular staple for clubs in Leagues One and Two.
The 85,000 crowd that watched Portsmouth defeat Sunderland on penalties at Wembley in this years' final helped to restore some of the competition's gloss - but it wasn't always this way.
Back in the late 1980s - in the days before Football League play-offs were decided beneath the twin towers of Wembley Stadium - the Freight Rover Trophy, the Sherpa Van Trophy and the Leyland Daf Cup, as it was known in its various guises, represented the best chance many lower league pros plying their trade in Division Three and Division Four had of playing at the home of football.
And this was the case for the respective players of Torquay United and Wolverhampton Wanderers when they met in the second leg of their Sherpa Van Trophy Southern Area final.
Wolves had won the first leg at Plainmoor 2-1, thanks to a brace from Steve Bull and many believed that the return fixture between the two sides would be a mere formality.
Such was
the hosts’ confidence that they would reach the final of the competition for
the second year in succession - they had beaten Burnley in the previous year's final in front of a record crowd of 88,000 - that local coach companies were already taking
bookings for the final and Wembley 1989 rosettes were also on sale at the
ground.
In what
was the first senior competitive match to be played in England following the
Hillsborough disaster, many observers expected the second leg to be a formality
for Wolves - after they had won the first leg at Plainmoor.
At this
time Wolves were undergoing a revival under Graham Turner, which would see them
return to Division Two after winning the Fourth and Third Division titles in
consecutive seasons between the 1987-88 and 1988-89 campaigns.
Their
upturn in fortunes was spearheaded by their formidable strike partnership of
Steve Bull and Andy Mutch.
Bull had
managed to find the back of the net 52 times in all competitions in the previous
season for Wolves, and had scored 46 up until their second meeting with the
Gulls in the 1988-89 campaign.
Mutch scored
23 in the 1987-88 season and would surpass the 20-goal mark again for Turner’s
men in the following campaign.
Nevertheless,
Gulls boss Cyril Knowles devised a plan to stop them - as he ordered his back
five to sit deep and not allow Bull or Mutch any space to run in behind them.
Knowles had
discovered that the pair preferred defenders to push up and mark them tightly,
enabling them to beat the offside trap – so Knowles’ plan was designed to stop
the pair from doing this.
His
scheme also meant that he was very reliant on his attacking players catching
Wolves on the break.
Another
major decision that Knowles had to make was who to play in goal in place of the
injured Kenny Veysey. Rookie keeper Mark Coombe was cup-tied - after having
already appeared for Colchester United during a loan spell earlier in the
season. This meant that Knowles was forced into bringing veteran keeper Kenny
Allen out of professional retirement.
Since
his release by the Gulls at the end of the 1987-88 campaign, Allen had signed
for Newport County. However, his time with the Welsh side had come to a
premature end after they withdrew from the Conference due to financial
difficulties.
All of
Knowles’ plans appeared to be paying dividends when the Gulls took the lead on
eight minutes when Mark Loram picked out Edwards, who beat Wolves keeper Roger
Hansbury with a shot from the edge of the area to score his eleventh goal of
the season.
Wolverhampton
born-and-bred Edwards had stood on the Molineux terraces as a youngster before
later representing the club during his professional career; and now here he was
playing a key role in potentially denying the West Midlands giants a second
successive trip to Wembley.
To add
another significant twist to the tale - Edwards had twice been let go by Wolves
manager Turner in his career; firstly when he was a youngster at Shrewsbury
Town and secondly at Molineux in 1986.
Two
minutes before half-time, the pair linked up again when Edwards was felled by
Wolves left-back Mark Venus. It was then left to Loram to take a quick
free-kick, which took the Wolves’ defence by surprise - as Loram was one of few
people in the ground who realised that referee Brian Hill had not ordered the
delay of the taking of the free-kick.
His
effort saw United double their lead on the night and, more importantly, move
ahead of their opponents 3-2 on aggregate.
In the
second half, Bull missed a sitter three minutes after the re-start, which Wolves
soon lived to regret as Torquay produced a defensive display that must rank
amongst one of the best that the club has ever pulled off.
The
recalled Allen made a string of outstanding saves in the United goal, and the
defence in front of him - which featured a centre back trio of Jim McNichol, Matt Elliott and Phil Lloyd - stuck resolutely to their pre-match instructions from
Knowles to keep Bull and Mutch at bay.
Allen
summed up the feelings generated by the occasion when he commented after the
match saying: “I now believe everything I ever read in Roy of the Rovers.”
And it
was the contingent of 400 Gulls’ fans, who were vastly outnumbered by the home
supporters, who returned home happy in the knowledge that their side that
become the first of the three Devon professional sides to reach Wembley.
United
were also one of only two teams to beat Wolves at Molineux that season; the
other being Bristol Rovers in a league fixture.
