Chasetown denied Staffordshire Senior Cup success in late heartbreak - PICTURES

The Scholars led 1-0 for the majority of the game and were heading for silverware before the Premier League's under-23 team equalised with a cruel blow in injury time.

The Potters then won the resulting shoot-out 4-3 to deny Chasetown their first ever Staffs Cup trophy.

"It just epitomises our season," said Stringer. "It was a tough night with backs to the wall but we defended absolutely fantastically. You get to that 93rd minute and think 'we're going to do this', so it was heart-breaking to see that goal go in. It was really cruel for the lads. They stuck a corner in right on the button, and their big 6ft 5in centre-half scored.

"They signed him from Dundee for £750,000, so we were dealing with a very good side.

"They moved the ball around, but we coped with it. Afterwards I told them I was immensely proud of every single one of them.

"It's been indifferent since Christmas but much better the last six or seven weeks and I could not have asked more of them the other night.

"We had a player, Josh Ruff, who ran the London Marathon on Sunday before turning out for us on Wednesday, which just goes to show the commitment."

The young XI from Premier League Stoke City scored an injury-time leveller and then won a dramatic penalty shoot-out to secure the Potters their 14th county cup triumph.

The Scholars had made a dream start with a goal after four minutes.

Matthew Gardner – who scored twice on his full debut at the weekend – got on the end of a ball into the box and confidently sidefooted past Harry Isted.

Stoke were a whisker away from an equaliser when Ryan Hill's deflected effort looped up and Curtis Pond had to scurry back to fingertip the ball over the bar.

The Potters continued to pressurise the non-leaguers and Dominic Telford received the ball from a Hill flick-on before firing into the side netting from a tight angle.

Stoke got even closer three minutes before half-time.

A speculative effort from Danny Jarvis had Pond rooted to the spot but the ball rebounded off the Scholars' crossbar.

Another chance was spurned at the start of the second half.

Tyrese Campbell was clean through and goal side of the Chasetown defence but recklessly fired over the crossbar from just inside the penalty area.

Chasetown made a couple of substitutions to freshen up and had a spell of pressure that saw Jack Langston fire into the side netting and Josh Ruff fired on target but straight at Isted.

A minute into four minutes of stoppage time Stoke finally drew level with a left-wing corner that was powered home by lanky centre-half Harry Souttar.

And after Pond and Isted had saved a spot-kick, the Stoke stopper kept out James Dance's effort, which allowed Jack Devlin to net the shoot-out winner.