ANDY MORRELL wanted experienced and confident penalty-takes on the biggest stage - but he was surprised to see Chris Westwood put his name forward.

Wrexham headed to Wembley seven years ago for the club's first ever appearance at the iconic stadium with Grimbsy the opponents in the FA Trophy final.

Although the Mariners took a 70th minute lead, Wrexham scored a late equaliser through Kevin Thornton's spot-kick to take the game to extra-time.

Neither side could find a winner in the additional 30 minutes so the showpiece had to be decided on a penalty shoot-out - and the Reds' players did not let their manager down.

Adrian Cieslewicz, Danny Wright and Westwood converted spot-kicks before Johnny Hunt's successful effort from 12 yards sealed a 4-1 victory.

Morrell had a thought-process when it came to selecting his five men for the shoot-out, and Westwood's self belief meant he was the man for the job.

"All the lads had a go at penalties the day before but you just can't replicate it," said Morrell.

"We had people who had taken penalties in the league. I wanted people to be confident taking one so I did ask.

"There are always young kids who want to do it and if it goes wrong for them, they have got that for the rest of their career.

"I didn't want to put too much pressure on the younger ones and when Westy said yes, I just wanted experienced lads to take them because they had been there and done it, and could probably handle the occasion and handle the aftermath of it if it went wrong.

"I remember saying to Westy: 'are you sure?' and he said: 'yes, I am not coming to Wembley and haven't had the chance to take a penalty. I am never going to do that again'.

"I was 'crack on!' What a great attitude to have, and he was experienced, had played in play-offs and that sort of thing."

Four from four in a penalty shoot-out is an impressive statistic, with Grimsby goalkeeper James McKeown not having a chance with any of the spot-kicks.

Morrell's only disappointment was the Wrexham didn't win in 90 minutes, or extra-time.

"We just put them in order and off they went," said Morrell.

"If I'm right they all went the same way. I think the goalkeeper has dived the same way every one and we have all gone the opposite way.

"McKeown had an unbelievable game with some of the saves he made and it was a shame it went to penalties.

"We conceded a goal, which obviously we didn't want to, but the game-changer was probably Cizz coming on.

"He created a lot of stuff for us, got a penalty back for the equaliser, and I thought in extra-time we were fantastic and deserved to win in full-time, never mind extra-time.

"But the lottery of the penalties and thankfully the lads stood up and were counted, and we scored all ours.

"We would rather have done it in normal time but what a day and the fans were unbelievable; with what they had to go through to get there was incredible."

Nearly 20,000 supporters dug themselves out of the snow to make it down to London to see Wrexham make history.

The players and staff saw on social media the lengths that fans were going through to make sure they didn't miss the final and Morrell admits he used that as part of his team-talk.

"That was a big thing for us because we were seeing at breakfast and at pre-match what they were doing to get out and to get down to Wembley with all the snow," added Morrell.

"That just spurred us on even more and it might even have been a bit of my team-talk: if they are doing that, the least we can do is give everything and thankfully it went really well.

"It was a brilliant day from start to finish. The night afterwards was half decent as well!"