Kyle McAdam looked forward to a "massive occasion" in the Vertu Trophy semi-finals after helping Northampton Town reach the last four for the first time.
The 21-year-old loan signing marked his debut by providing the assist for Tom Eaves to score a 73rd-minute winner as they beat AFC Wimbledon at Plough Lane.
McAdam – who arrived from Nottingham Forest on transfer deadline day – could have had a goal of his own before Jack Vale put the Cobblers ahead but was denied by the Wimbledon goalkeeper in an early one-on-one.
"I should have done better really but the keeper made some good saves in the first half, especially with his feet," he told BBC Radio Northampton.
"The gaffer really wants to get to the final. Now we're one game away from Wembley and it will be a massive occasion.
"The main thing now is to keep pushing, we've got a big league game on Saturday and we want to go back to back wins.
"We don't want to be scrapping around at the end of the season, we want to be pushing away from it [the bottom of the table]."
McAdam was used as a wing-back by boss Kevin Nolan, although his role in Nottingham Forest's Under-21 team has been more generally in midfield.
"Hats off to Kyle McAdam – a lovely ball back in for Eavesy to finish," Nolan said.
Northampton last played at Wembley in 2020 when they beat Exeter City 4-0 in a League Two play-off final played behind closed doors because of Covid.
They would love a chance to go to the national stadium again with their fans in attendance, as they did in 2013 – only to lose 3-0 to Bradford City.
But Nolan said it was too early to start talking about the possibility with a semi-final still to play and the team currently 19th in League One after ending an eight-game winless run by taking four points from the last two.
"We'd best not start talking about Wembley, we've got lots and lots of games before then. One game at a time," he added.
"If we're lucky enough to go there we'll all be enjoying it and hopefully coming back with the trophy but there's a long way to go."
Nolan made 10 changes against Wimbledon and said he thought the players who came into the team, including McAdam, were excellent.
"We've worked really hard to get this far in the competition. We've used the squad really well and the lads who came in [against Wimbledon] have given themselves a good platform to build on," he added.
"These games are giving us really good scope to put people out there and give them an opportunity to showcase what they're about and I'm delighted with them all.
"When it's Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday, we're going to need all the squad and they've all got to be zoned in and ready to go again [at Exeter] on Saturday."
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