Wokingham Today

‘It’s just a game

Saturday is going to be a day to remember. Moles skipper Sean Moore explains why to ANDY PRESTON

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BINFIELD FC captain Sean Moore is relishing the moment that he gets to lead the Moles out at Wembley Stadium for the FA Vase final. “It’s been crazy,” said the Moles’ captain, reflecting on the achievemen­t of qualifying for the Vase final.

“People keep asking me how I feel and I still don’t really know yet, I don’t think it will hit home until we’re travelling up there or maybe the night before.

“It’s not like anything I’ve ever experience­d before so it’s hard to put into words.

“Even some profession­al players don’t ever get the chance to play at Wembley.

“My boy is three years old and for him to be able to experience that will be amazing. As soon as I got home he was running around the house shouting ‘we’re going to Wembley’.

“It’s an incredible game for the fans to have as their first game back after such a long time away.

“Being able to lead the team out will be a special moment. Although I’m captain, the boys in this squad lead themselves, everyone will be motivated and knows what they’ve got to do.”

“There’s not many teams that can stop us from scoring. We always back ourselves to score and win games,” said Moore, reflecting on Binfield’s semi-final win over United Services Portsmouth.

“We were relentless over the 90 minutes, and we kept attacking their goal and used our never say die attitude to eventually get the equaliser. All of the boys have so much belief, we never doubt anyone.

“We have 20 players that are good enough to play in the side and play at that level.

“We haven’t practised penalties once. We have a few boys that are very confident taking them and they’ve proved that. Ultimately huge credit to Chris Grace.

“We back him through and through in a penalty shootout. I wouldn’t want to take a penalty against him, it’s quite intimidati­ng. Every time we’re in that situation, he’s the first person we look to and we have complete faith in him.

“There were lots of smiles, then tears, then more smiles and then some more tears after that. It’s hard to put into words how I felt on the day. I was very emotional.

“I got back to the dressing room after and saw a video of my son and my partner watching the game and the shootout, seeing their faces and how happy they were made me cry again.

The Binfield skipper was full of praise for the coaching staff who have made an incredible contributi­on in their early years in management at the club.

“On a personal note, they (Carl Withers and Jamie McClurg) have put a lot of trust into me,” he continued.

“They made me captain which has been an honour. They put a lot of faith in to me and have backed me throughout the whole season.

“They’ve done everything right. They’ve had some difficult decisions to make but they’ve handled everything in the right way.

“It’s a difficult job to keep everyone happy, but they’re people pleasers and they’ve managed to do it, to keep everyone motivated and have the same vision.

“They’ve been clear from the start that they wanted us to achieve something special.”

“It’s been an on and off season. We came back with the Vase fixtures knowing that if we lost any of the games, that we wouldn’t be playing for another three months.

“That’s definitely something that motivated us because we were desperate to get back and didn’t want the season to end. We’ve found a way to win game, we’ve managed it well and everyone has stated level headed

“We’ve all loved the away games. The journey down with all the boys together has been great. The preparatio­n has been key and has helped us a lot. I was quite happy to continue playing away.

“The odds have been against us and sometimes that’s how we like it to play against that pressure.”

Despite the enormity of the occasion, the skipper is focused on treating it like any other

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