COUNTY V YORK (FA Trophy final, Wembley, Saturday, KO 3pm)

WIMBLEDON midfielder Lee Minshull signed up for a relegation battle on the worst playing surface in English football when he joined Newport County on loan... and now he’s off to Wembley, writes Michael Pearlman.

The Londoner will play in a huge end of season game for the second successive season after helping Wimbledon to promotion in the Conference playoffs last May.

The Conference clash was staged at Manchester City’s Etihad Arena instead of Wembley because of the Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United, meaning Minshull and another Exiles star Ismail Yakubu missed the chance to play at the home of football. Now their opportunity arrives despite County’s disappointing campaign and Minshull, who could be set to extend his stay in Wales, can’t believe his luck!

“It’s the dream venue, many players with hundreds of league appearances haven’t and never will play there and it might take some of the younger players a few years to realise what a big honour it is.

“I knew I wasn’t cup tied when I joined but I never thought about getting to the final, I just relished more games in my loan spell.

“But when we were ticking off the rounds you dare to dream a little bit. Then I got suspended for the two games in the semi-final and you are just crossing your fingers, but we made it and it’s incredible, I can’t believe it really.”

Minshull has endured more than a little Wembley pain as a fan of Tottenham Hotspur, but he admits his affiliation for the club drew him to Spytty Park.

“When I got the call from Justin Edinburgh, as a Spurs fan, it was a little bit surreal, but it was nice,” he said. “After a couple of chats, mainly about Spurs, I came down and I’ve really enjoyed my time here.”

On a possible stay, he commented: “I didn’t think when I got here it would be as successful as it has been, we’ll see what happens but I’ve been very happy, it’s a big club.

“The injustice in their past (when County went out of business in 1989) is similar to the Wimbledon story and after a not very good season, it’s brilliant we are giving this day to the fans.

“They’ve been great with me and when I know what is happening with Wimbledon hopefully I can sit down with the gaffer and talk about the future.”

Minshull’s most recent Wembley experience was watching Spurs lose 5-1 to Chelsea and he’s keen to create better memories.

“There have been a few with Spurs, the best players can be affected by the magnitude of playing at Wembley, but there isn’t promotion on the line, we need to go out and enjoy it and express ourselves,” he said.

“We want to be the team who win it, when you finish your career you want to have created memories and this would be a great one.”

The Exiles have taken four points off York, who finished fourth in the Conference this term, a fact Minshull believes to be an irrelevance come game time. “We were holding on a bit in the away game, but we had a lot of high pressure games, we’ve not had an easy win since I’ve been here, it’s always been a scrap until the death,” he said.

“We may have taken four points off them but last year we (Wimbledon) didn’t score a goal all season against Luton and we went up instead of them, nothing that has gone before matters. For players at our level this is a chance you never expect, a huge, huge bonus and we’ve got a duty to play as well as we possibly can.”