Next in KSN’s exclusive series of interviews with the heroes that have taken Tunbridge Wells to the FA Vase Final is goalkeeper Chris Oladogba. 

Oladogba is the man who arguably is the first name on the team sheet as he wears the number one shirt and has been a hero on more than one occasion during the Wells’ “March to the Arch”.

Despite a couple of Man of the Match awards during the run, Chris is still trying to come to terms with what he and his team mates have achieved thus far.

“To be honest, it’s taken a long time for the very thought of playing at Wembley to sink in,” he said.

“Obviously all of the games that we’ve had to play means that we’ve been unable really to focus beyond this weekend. Our aim was to try and get the League games out of the way until we started really thinking about May 4th!”

“Despite the amount of games I never felt that we were “just” going through the motions – it’s a big shame that we had such a pile up of fixtures, but to be honest it has been a good distraction as it’s stopped a lot of us thinking about it really.”

“We’ve still got to go there after all and do a job against a good Spennymoor side and I do think that all the extra League games has been a healthy distraction.”

“Playing games it’s said is better than training and playing so many games is keeping the boys sharp as it’s hard to fit in training and playing all these games.”

“We’d have liked to have had some sessions on the training ground to go through some defensive routines but the games have just kept us ticking over and kept us match fit – so it hasn’t all been bad, but we would have liked to have played fewer games obviously!”

But having no time for “proper” training does have its’ problems as well.

“To be honest, to be behind this defence is amazing especially when you remember that 12 months ago I was playing football on Dulwich Park for South East London FC and now I’m going to be playing at the most famous football ground that there is in the whole world!”

“My football world has changed massively and whilst some of the plaudits have been nice, I completely disagree with a lot of them to be honest as the four boys that I’ve had in front of me – Bourney, Mingle, Perry and Scott – have been absolutely superb as a unit this season and they’ve made my job a hell of a lot easier, so real credit to the rest of the team too as a back four they’ve been absolutely outstanding this season.”

“So I cant take all the credit for what we’ve achieved – it truly has been an outstanding effort by the whole team.”

Whilst Chris had made the stops at one end, he took time to pay tribute to the Wells top scorer Andy Irvine.

He said, “To have someone as imposing Andy up front is brilliant and some of his goals have been extraordinary and he really has done the job when he needed to and turned up on the big occasions and really delivered the goods – he’s a great asset to have in the team.”

But there was a point when Chris thought that the dream was over. He admitted, “When we conceded the third goal at Shildon, I was really down as was everyone for about ten minutes, but deep down I always thought that we’d score and we did as Andy came up and scored another great goal and that rediscovered the mental strength that had momentarily disappeared and we were back on track.”

“It’s something that the coaching staff have drummed into us that its never over until its over so once Andy got that goal I definitely thought we were back on track and so we were!”

Chris then thanked Martin Larkin and his coaching staff for a wonderful season. Chris told us, “He and his back room staff are the best staff coaches that I’ve ever played under and they’ve definitely brought the best out of me as a player even going down to our keeper coach Stuart Copeland who doesn’t get the recognition that he deserves as goalkeeping wise he’s got me in the best shape of my career!”

“The kind of mentality and attitude is also something that I’ve never known at other clubs the way it’s drummed into you and hopefully they’ll let me stay as long as I can as its a real pleasure to work with them.”

Looking ahead to the Final itself, the giant keeper told us, “I haven’t really try to focus on Spennymoor too much as on the day it’s how we perform and what we do on the pitch, so I haven’t really thought about them if I’m honest.”

“At the end of the day, you’ve got to deal with what’s in front of you. People will say this and that about Spennymoor, but the team that turns up on the day is the team that we’ll have to face – trying not to think too much about it if I’m honest…”

“I’ve got to be honest and I have been mentally rehearing coming out of the tunnel on the day watching myself catching the crosses and saving the shots with perfect kicking – all of that stuff has gone through my mind. And at the point we first come out of the dressing room it all goes quiet I think in my head you know; you kind of zone out like you’re in a different world and you try and focus as much as you can on what’s going to come up – it’s almost like a bit of a blur really – I’d like to be able to take in the atmosphere and I think as a player you wont really be able to take it in as much as you can as its a once in a lifetime experience so it’s a blur the first five minutes, but I really am looking forward to seeing how close to the dream the day is…”

Join us later for the next in our series of “Road to Wembley” as we speak to every member of the Tunbridge Wells squad. Next up is Andy Boyle…