Former Chester City manager Jim Harvey guided FC Halifax Town to FA Trophy glory with a 1-0 win against Grimsby Town at Wembley.
Scott McManus netted the decisive goal three minutes into the second-half with the full-back curling a shot beyond Mariners keeper James McKeown from outside the box.
Ex-Blues captain Matty Brown and Kevin Roberts, who played under Harvey during four years at Chester, started for Halifax and Kingsley James came off the bench to replace McManus for the final 15 minutes while Shaq McDonald, sent-off on his sole Blues appearance in January 2014 after signing on loan from Peterborough United, was an unused substitute.
The victory earned the Shaymen, who beat Chester en route to Wembley with Jordan Burrow securing a 1-0 win in the third round in February at The Shay, £50,000 and provided a positive footnote on a disappointing campaign, which ended in relegation to the National League North.
Harvey described the result as 'amazing' given Grimsby had secured promotion to the Football League a week earlier in the play-off final .
However, the Northern Irishman, who managed the Blues for four months in 2009-10, must now wait to discover whether he has a future at the club with chairman David Bosomworth expected to make an announcement regarding the managerial situation this week.
Harvey said afterwards: "This result is amazing. It was exciting preparing for Wembley and thoroughly enjoyable, although at times the final was painful for me. But to beat Grimsby who are going into the Football League is massive."
Despite being unable to save the club from the drop, Harvey hopes he will be given the chance to continue as manager.
He said: “I hope for good news. Six months ago the club was dead and buried, ten points adrift. Okay we didn’t avoid relegation, but we’ve shown a lot of spirit, fight and effort and to win the FA Trophy speaks volumes for the players.”
James, who moved to Chester from Halifax last summer after turning down a new deal at the Lookers Vauxhall Stadium , married his girlfriend Emily 24 hours before the final and was on cloud nine after the final whistle.
“It's been unbelievable, I don't think I'll ever forget this weekend for as long as I live," said the midfielder.
“It's a great story to hopefully tell the kids when I'm older. There's no comparison; I married my lovely wife yesterday and today I've won a trophy at Wembley and there's some great players who have never achieved that.
"For us as a group of players, especially with the way the season has gone, this has been unbelievable today.
"We are still very disappointed but if we had lost today it would have had a massive negative effect on everyone, so to end on a high is really good especially for the fans because they've had a tough season with us as well."
