Carlton Cole believes that his extensive experience - and that of some of his fellow team mates - will be vital in tomorrow's Championship play-off Final.
Cole, who has appeared at Wembley as a substitute for England in the past believes that experience - and calmness under pressure - will be key components in any potential win for West Ham against Blackpool tomorrow afternoon.Having been at West Ham since 2006, for whom he signed having left Chelsea in a £2million deal, the 28-year-old striker is now considered to be one of the club's more senior players.
And it is his valuable experience at both club and national level that Cole hopes he can use to assist some of the squads younger members when the team kick-off in front of around 80,000 people at the national stadium - even though it will also be his first appearance at the stadium outside of the national squad.
"It'll be a new experience for me," Cole said. "I've never been to Wembley with a club team and I'm really hoping to be involved. But we're in a rich vein of form and everybody's looking forward to this occasion.
"Obviously when you go to Wembley it's a massive occasion and you need to be able to deal with the atmosphere because it's going to be different. I feel we've got enough experienced players to deal with it.
"We've got a captain who's been in a play-off Final before and he's talking everybody through it, to cope with the pressure. That's what the young lads need and people who've not experienced Wembley before need as well. Plus it's something I've been trying to do all season.
"It's funny because once I was one of the young lads looking to the experienced pros but now its turned itself on its head, now I'm the experienced lad trying to help the younger boys. That's what they need from us so that's what we try to give them.
"I'm a father too so I've got responsibilities as well at home, so it's natural to do it for the boys here as well. I've got a lot more experience than some of the boys here and I'll try to help them as well as I can."
"Everyone's been asking me for tickets. I just put on my BBM status that there's no tickets left. So don't ask me - and if you do ask me, you're getting deleted! Sam said after Tuesday if anyone's asking for tickets, tell them to f off!"
CALMNESS PERSONIFIED: Carlton looks ahead to the Wembley showdown
Cole also revealed that he has received a number of messages of support from friends and fellow footballers - including Daniel Sturridge of Chelsea ("he always phones me up and is always looking out for our results; I don't know why!") and former Hammer Rio Ferdinand, who learned this week that he had been omitted from England's European Championship squad.
"I had Rio texting me 'good luck!'" revealed Cole. "He's fine, he's just getting on a bit, you know! I just told him to go out and enjoy his holiday with the family. We're getting a lot of support from anyone who has been connected to West Ham in the past or present.
"So we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the fans and to everyone connected to West Ham to win on Saturday."
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