Luke Murphy praises his team-mates after 2-0 win over Southend

Luke Murphy described the moment of leading his hometown club out at Wembley, scoring a wonder goal and going up the steps to lift the Football League Trophy as his proudest moment in football. Murphy opened the scoring in a 2-0 win with an unstoppable shot from the edge of the Southend United box after Harry Davis had allowed a Byron Moore corner to run past him.

Following a 2-0 win at Wembley, Murphy told crewealex.net: “I said beforehand that leading my hometown team out at Wembley would be my proudest moment and to win the game and to leave the trophy is an unbelievable feeling.

“The lads were brilliant today because Southend put us under a lot of pressure. The back four and goalkeeper were outstanding. They dealt with everything and that clearance from Harry Davis was worth a goal in my eyes. It was an unbelievable clearance. Full credit to everyone involved.

“I thought that chance was a goal for Southend. There were two of their players sticking their heads in and Harry has stuck his in there to get it off the line. I thought it was in.

“He does that in training and sticks his ugly mug in there and typified us as a team. Collectively as a team we have had a great season and this a reward for all the hard work have put in.

“It was touch and go about me playing. It was close. Rob Sharp and Nick Oakley deserve enormous credit for getting me out there. They worked hard to make sure I was okay. Rob got in from Crawley at 4am but he was up a few hours later to catch a train to Manchester so we could go for a scan and that shows the work they put in. I owe everything to them.

“Bakes spotted that Southend left a gap on the edge of the box from set pieces and we worked on it for the goal. We did it over the last few days and we were deciding whether to it, and we thought for the first one we would do it.

“They had a height advantage on us, so we tried something different and it was a great reward for the work we did with the shorter corner”.