Hornchurch manager Mark Stimson only had one word to explain his feelings - "amazing" - after guiding the club to their first FA Trophy semi-final.
Goals from Liam Nash and Sam Higgins sealed the Urchins' 2-1 victory over National League North side Darlington away from home in the quarter-finals.
But it wasn’t just the game the boss was full of praise for as he singled out fans Peter Hay and Ann Hodgkinson for clapping the team bus back into the ground.
"The trip on Friday night, the banter between the players, the walk and the game itself - it was just absolutely amazing.
“The trip home, everything was unbelievable, and at the end of it something happened - and it’s happened to me once before.
"We arrived back at the ground at about quarter to 12. When we got to the Upminster set of lights, there were two supporters there with a Hornchurch flag. That is nothing short of incredible. I’m lost for words.
“Two elderly people to come out on a Saturday night, stand and clap their players, you don’t get that anywhere else. Absolutely amazing and it blew me away.
“It’s happened to me once before when I was manager of Gillingham and we come back from Accrington Stanley. I had some people waiting at the ground at 3 in the morning.”
He added: “Those two supporters, Pete and Ann, to do that is just wow.”
Stimson labelled his players as class after Darlington’s commentary team referred to them as a pub team during the match.
“The game itself absolutely brilliant. We went 1-0 up through a fantastic goal, well worked, but they got back into it before half-time.
“Second-half we’ve come out again, by all accounts the commentary from Darlington wasn’t very polite to us. We’re not professional but the comments from them were unprofessional.
“A lot was said around 60 minutes that we ran out of steam, we’ve got a few players that are overweight and look like pub players. I’m so pleased for the boys that they showed that they’re not and that they’re quality.
“I’ve got three or four players straight away that could play National League or League Two football, they just need the opportunity.
“I let George Saunders go to Dagenham & Redbridge last year. These three players are better than George Saunders. They’re not pub players.”
Stimson added: “Obviously you’d like to know about these comments at half-time as that could have been an even bigger gee-up for the boys. But we didn’t know about that until after the game.
“Not very nice, but it is more satisfying when you come away thinking the pub team from Hornchurch got the job done.”
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