Chelsea survived a Liverpool fightback to lift the FA Cup for the third time in four years, Andy Carroll's excellent second-half goal setting up a close finish but not quite saving the game. The Liverpool centre-forward thought he had done exactly that with a powerful header from Luis Suárez's cross eight minutes from time that Petr Cech appeared to claw back from across the line, but though the Liverpool bench celebrated prematurely in the manner of Fabio Capello in Bloemfontein, referee Phil Dowd let play continue, correctly as it turned out, since the immediately available replays did not establish that the ball had gone in.

While from Cech's positioning it was possible to suspect it might have, there was no incontrovertible evidence, as was the case with Frank Lampard's disallowed equaliser against Germany. It was more of a goal than the Juan Mata effort that helped Chelsea past Spurs in the semi-final, though not enough of one to be awarded on the desperate pleading of Suárez and Carroll.

Kenny Dalglish, to his credit, did not harp on about the incident afterwards. "If the officials got it right they deserve credit," the Liverpool manager said. "We were excellent in the last half hour but the game lasts for 90 minutes. You can't give a team as good as Chelsea a two-goal start." Roberto Di Matteo, becoming the fourth Chelsea manager to win this trophy in six years, accepted it had been a tense finish. "We played well for the majority of the game and scored two very nice goals, but it got a bit nervy towards the end," he said. "When Carroll came on he caused us some problems."

Carroll was of two sub-plots who did not start. His goal against Everton in the semi-final only earned him a place on the bench, where he was in close proximity to Fernando Torres, who probably expected to be left out against his former club in favour of Didier Drogba and his enviable Wembley scoring record, which, in fairness, the Chelsea striker was able to extend with what turned out to be the winning goal.

After an opening 10 minutes that were cagey even by cup-final standards, the game came to life with a goal before either side had properly constructed a move. Jay Spearing gave the ball away to Mata on halfway and paid a heavy price for his carelessness when the Chelsea forward raced away to supply Ramires, who held off José Enrique with surprising ease to beat Pepe Reina at his near post with a confident early shot. The goalkeeper could perhaps have done better but appeared wrong footed and could not get his hands to the ball, ending up deflecting it into the net off his leg.

Liverpool appeared stunned, and Steven Gerrard was lucky to get away with a scything tackle on Mata before Suárez attempted a shot from the halfway line and missed the target so badly the ball went out for a throw. Liverpool still played quite cautiously after going behind, with Suárez an isolated figure up front and Craig Bellamy not quite functioning as a link between midfield and attack. On the rare occasions they did threaten the Chelsea penalty area, Suárez and Stewart Downing were both guilty of giving the ball away again, and though Gerrard made a couple of typically determined runs he was not in the game enough to exert any sort of control.

A hopeful long shot from Drogba was about the sum of Chelsea's attempts to increase their lead in the first half, which could have ended all square had Suárez been able to take advantage of a sharp chance that came his way from a header by Jordan Henderson. Amusingly, during the interval, the first-half highlights on the big screen featured nothing from Chelsea except the goal that had put them in front. Liverpool featured more often, which was an odd but accurate reflection of an uneventful 45 minutes. Gerrard began the second half with a surging run into the Chelsea area, only to end up on the floor in a vain attempt to win a penalty. Chelsea responded by going straight down the field and snatching another goal with another lightning strike, Drogba scoring his eighth goal at Wembley to keep up his record of scoring on major occasions. The move was a familiar one, though it still seemed to take Liverpool by surprise. Frank Lampard threaded a carefully weighted diagonal pass forward for Drogba to take, turn, and find Reina's bottom-left corner with a low shot before Martin Skrtel could close him down, not that the defender, with his back to the Chelsea player, managed a particularly good job of attempting to close Drogba down.

Suárez brought a save from Petr Cech as Liverpool tried to hit back, and Dalglish sent on Carroll for Spearing after 55 minutes to beef up their attacking presence. Liverpool chasing the game was exactly what Chelea wanted them to do, and Salomon Kalou should have done better than miss the target after an hour when he had players in support on either side of him. Drogba was in the process of launching an extravagant strike from 30 yards out when Suárez put his foot in the way and brought him down. From the free-kick, Lampard tried his luck from the same distance but shot wide, as did Drogba from closer range on the next Chelsea attack.

Just as it began to look as if Chelsea would be able to increase their lead at will, Liverpool made a game of it with a fine goal from their much-maligned substitute. Carroll's goal was much better than the one he scored in the semi-final; in fact he finished with such conviction he almost made his £35m fee look reasonable. Controlling the ball in the area then sending John Terry first one way then the other, the centre-forward made space for a shot with his left foot and crashed the ball past Cech from a narrow angle. Dalglish's side enjoyed their best spell after that, playing with real self-belief and managing to bring Bellamy more into the game, though when Gerrard galloped onto a Carroll knockdown and attempted what would have been the most spectacular of equalisers, he could not keep his shot down and the ball nearly ended up in Wembley's second tier.

Chelsea were suddenly having to do all the defending, as Suárez saw a shot tipped round a post and Carroll headed over, and at least a game that had failed to produce any excitement in the first half had turned into an absorbing contest. Carroll's goal-line controversy added further spice to the mix, and the Liverpool substitute came closer than anyone to taking the game into extra-time in the closing seconds, when it took a terrific block from Terry to stop his goal-bound shot. On this evidence, Carroll might not just be worth £35m, he might be worth a whole game.