Former Blackpool man was always confident of Wembley win

Speaking to The Gazette for the 10th anniversary of that day at Wembley, Southern revealed the confidence levels among Ian Holloway’s troops were sky-high.

Being considered underdogs only served to help the Seasiders as it was a tag they had used to good effect all season, having been considered relegation favourites at the start of the campaign.

Southern said: “To get to the final of any cup, any competition, you always believe you’re going to win.

“We had nothing but positive thoughts heading into that game.

“We probably knew we would entertain and ship some goals along the way but there was never any doubt in my mind that we wouldn’t win the game.

“Again, we had to come from behind in a topsy-turvy game, but it just suited us having that underdog mentality.

“We had a real freedom. You want players to play without fear and I think we had that in abundance, particularly at that stage of the season because nothing scared us.

“We knew they had good players – Jay Bothroyd, Michael Chopra, Peter Whittingham, Stephen McPhail and so on – they had some really good players. But we felt we were better.

“No-one came out and said that before the game because we were always respectful for whatever side we were coming up against, but we certainly didn’t fear anyone.

“You need a bit of luck along the way and I think we had a bit of that. But every team that achieves something needs the rub of the green at times.

“Bothroyd going off injured, maybe that helped us and that was the bit of luck we needed.

“We were camped in our own half in the second half but we had balls and we hung on.”