WEALDSTONE V COUNTY (FA Trophy, Saturday, KO 3pm)

NEWPORT County captain Gary Warren has warned his teammates that they are still a long way from fulfilling their boyhood dreams of playing at Wembley.

County travel to Wealdstone for the second leg of their FA Trophy semi-final on Saturday with a 3-1 lead after the first leg at Spytty Park.

Warren admits that the Exiles are in the driving seat but he insists that they will not be taking anything for granted at the St George’s Stadium.

“You’ve got to be cautious in this type of situation. Obviously we won on Saturday but they posed a real threat,” said Warren.

“We’re 90 minutes away from Wembley but we know we’ve still got half a job to do on Saturday.”

Warren headed against the bar at the weekend to set up Nat Jarvis for County’s second goal after Elliott Buchanan’s opener.

Substitute Darryl Knights added a third goal near the end after Richard Jolly had pulled one back for Wealdstone.

And Warren was impressed by 35-goal striker Jolly, naming him as the main man standing between County and the final on May 12.

“He scored against us on Saturday and we’ll have to be careful against him because he is dangerous,” said the skipper.

“We will be professional but if we’re at our best, which we will be, then we should be fine. We will prepare right and get the job done.”

Should County prevail on Saturday and continue their recent revival in the league it would complete a remarkable turnaround from a woeful start to the season.

Previous manager Anthony Hudson was sacked in October after winning just one match in the Blue Square Bet Premier but things have slowly turned round under new boss Justin Edinburgh.

“It would be a dream come true to get to Wembley,” said Warren. “If you look at the start of the season we started sloppy and we haven’t fulfilled the ambitions we had starting out.

“But since the new gaffer has come in we’re looking upwards rather than down the table now and to cap it off with a trip to Wembley would be amazing.

“I’ve been to watch a few times there but never played there – that’s every kid’s dream. If I can do it I’ll retire a happy man.

“We’re all excited by the challenge.

“You can’t be negative against a side that is going to come on to you,” he explained. “We’ve got to fight fire with fire and get an early goal in the first 20 minutes.

“The strikers are in form and scoring goals but it’s up to the team collectively to defend well and keep a clean sheet and if we do that we know we’ll be there.”