REACTION: "To Be Involved Was An Honour" - Adu-Poku

"A GREAT occasion to be a part of," was how wide midfielder Michael Adu-Poku summed up just his third start for Wealdstone after a last-gasp goal means he's Wembley-bound.

Having extending his loan at The Vale earlier in the week, the Watford academy product was all smiles when talking to wealdstone-fc.com.

"To be able to start in such a game like this was amazing," he said.

"It was an honour to be involved; for the manager to ask me to start the game and trust me on the day like he did."

Quite so - as it came off the back of Stons' boss Gary Waddock's message to the 20-year-old that he needed to show he should be playing more minutes.

"What the gaffer said was fair enough," agreed the young winger, who also has a couple of Hornets' first-team appearances to his name.

"Games like this are about fighting for the team, being unselfish and thinking about how you can make a difference for your teammates when the chance comes.

"I wanted to be as direct as possible today - a bit like Dom [Hutchinson] has done so well this season.

"I was gutted for him that he was suspended today, but he's been around me being very supportive because he knew what a big game it was for me."

No stranger to National League-level action, Adu-Poku had a successful loan spell at Solihull Moors early last season and some loan time at Rochdale towards the end of the 204/25 campaign

"I've been at this level before. It's a tough league and you can't come here and roll over - you've got to stand up for the fight," said the wide operator, who also played a handful of times on loan at League Two Barrow earlier this term.

"I still think of myself as a young player but with a little bit of experience so it's not all new to me.

"We knew we had the quality today to get something from the game at some point. Trusting ourselves and our team-mates was important."

Long before Micah Obiero's 93rd-minute winner, Adu-Poku had a good chance in front of The Bulla after being slotted in by Sean Adarkwa.

"I want to say it bobbled!" he laughed. "But actually I snatched at it a little bit, I was a bit keen, and it went well over the stand - never mind the crossbar.

"But we got the job done and it feels amazing now to be going to Wembley with these boys."