A 5-3 penalty-shootout victory has seen Bristol Rovers return to the Football League just 12 months after they were relegated from League Two.
Over the course of 120 minutes, they and Grimsby Town played out a 1-1 draw in the Conference Premier playoff final at Wembley, with both sides scoring before the break.
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In an incident-packed first half, Grimsby broke the deadlock in just the second minute when Lenell John-Lewis poked the ball beyond the reach of Rovers goalkeeper Will Puddy from close range.
Puddy was then fortunate to remain on the field in the 19th minute when he blocked Ollie Palmer's lobbed shot with his hands outside of the area and yet was only shown a yellow card and not red.
Ten minutes later, there was further disappointment for Grimsby when they were pegged back. A corner caused confusion in the box and Wales Under-21 international Ellis Harrison reacted quickest to draw Rovers level.
While the opening 45 minutes had been entertaining, the second half was much more of a nervy and cautious affair, with both sets of players seemingly aware that a mistake could prove costly.
Consequently, there was few clear goalscoring chances of note and the contest went into extra-time.
The added 30 minutes were largely dominated by Grimsby, but they failed to make the most of their chances, with John-Lewis in particular guilty of spurning two good openings.
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It meant that penalties would be required to determine which of these sides would be a Football League club next term.
Rovers opted to go first and, having seen the first five penalties successfully converted, Grimsby's Jon-Paul Pittman blazed his effort over the crossbar.
When Angelo Balanta made it 4-2, Darrell Clarke's men were on the verge of success and it was left to Lee Mansell to do the honours as he duly dispatched his spot kick to send his side back into the Football League.
Liam Apicella
