THE PAOLO DI CANIO COLUMN: Reaching Wembley (From Swindon Advertiser)

THE PAOLO DI CANIO COLUMN: Reaching Wembley

7:40am Thursday 9th February 2012 in Sport By Paolo Di Canio

Seeing all of the fans run onto the pitch to celebrate with us after the Barnet game was an amazing moment.

Obviously there was a lot of expectation on us because everybody thought we should be in the final.

At the end of the day we deserved to go through and the best team reached the final.

At the final whistle I felt very relaxed and free because all of the belief and hope of the fans came together, and it made everyone very happy.

We wanted to reward the fans because they came in numbers to support us.

At every single moment during the game they showed their support for the team very well.

We needed this and they proved they are very important and a massive part of the club, because the team felt this situation.

It was a special atmosphere very similar to the Wigan game, and I hope they all keep coming to support us before Wembley.

We want the County Ground to be packed out with numbers because we are going to play every game like it is the Champions League final, and we need their support.

After 20 minutes for me, I talked to my family and started working straight away after the game.

I had a very short evening because I did not have time to celebrate, but there was enough time to celebrate with my players and the fans.

I did not put too much energy into celebration because I had to focus all of my energy into our next game against Barnet.

But now we are at Wembley it will be amazing for us to have so many fans there cheering us on, and it will be amazing for us to have the chance to move the population of Swindon in so many numbers, maybe 25 or 30 thousand, to Wembley to watch us play the final match.

We want to bring the cup back together and show everyone what we can do.

We will do it together and we will be trying to make the Town proud because so many people did not expect us to do well, but even when we were struggling at the start of the season we thought we could do well in the league and the cup.

That makes me very proud and I am proud for my players, the staff and the board and everyone who works hard every day to reach this moment.

The fans are very crucial because they have their part in it.