His clearance went back to Devaney who struck the ball past Rushden's goalkeeper Billy Turley from a tight angle.

Within 14 seconds, the score was level at 1–1 as Paul Hall beat three Cheltenham defenders before shooting past Steve Book.

In the 80th minute, substitute Neil Grayson's curling shot struck the Rushden goalpost but John Finnigan scored from the rebound.

[2] Eleven minutes after half-time, Paul Simpson scored from distance with a curling shot before Rushden saw a potential equalising goal from Onandi Lowe disallowed for a foul.

In the 75th minute, Hall took advantage of a mistake by Griffiths to go round Billy Turley, the Rochdale goalkeeper, and score the deciding goal.

The visiting side started strongly and eventually took the lead in injury time in the first half when Eifion Williams scored with a header from close range.

With one minute remaining in the game, Martyn Lee won the ball from Chris Westwood and played it to Neil Grayson who levelled the score, ending the match 1–1.

Alsop then scored to put Cheltenham ahead in sudden death before Ritchie Humphreys' strike hit the crossbar; despite appearing to have crossed the goalline, the shot was adjudged to have missed.

[17] Both sides adopted a 4–4–2 formation and Cheltenham opted to wear their third-choice kit which was yellow in preference to their "unlucky" orange strip.

Within 14 seconds, the score was level as Paul Hall beat three Cheltenham defenders before shooting past Steve Book to make it 1–1.

In the 69th minute, Rushden made two substitutions, with Jon Brady and Brett Angell coming on to replace Gray and Partridge.

[19] His counterpart Brian Talbot admitted his side was second-best and that Cheltenham "edged it and deserved to win ... On the day the best team has won and we have got to reproduce it next season.

"[19] Cheltenham became the eleventh consecutive team to win a final at the Millennium Stadium after being allocated the North End dressing room.