JAMES Trafford can’t wait to tick another item off his footballing bucket list.

The Manchester City goalkeeper has already packed a lot into his first couple of seasons in the senior game – including his first caps for England Under-21s and shattering club records in his loan spell with Bolton Wanderers, which might yet see him lift the first silverware of his career too.

Just the chance to play at Wembley will satisfy a boyhood dream for the 20-year-old Cumbrian, who confidently predicts he will one day walk out as England’s number one too.

“It’s one of the goals I want to achieve, and it’s something I think I’ll do as well,” he told The Bolton News. “But from being young I just wanted the chance to play at Wembley because that’s where England play as well, so I’m happy to get a chance in just my second season in football. It’s really special that we’ve done it.”

Progression to the final came at the expense of Trafford’s former loan club, Accrington, where he had spent half a season before his arrival at Bolton last January.

Wanderers had been heavy favourites in the game, and more so when Sean McConville was sent off for a reckless challenge on Conor Bradley which left the home side with 10 men.

“When we went into that game at Accrington we knew it was one win and we were at Wembley, so we put a lot into it. Everyone wanted to make sure we won it.

“When the final whistle went it was just relief because when they went down to 10 men all the pressure and expectation was on us to go and get the goal, and we knew it went straight to penalties as well.

“We kept hitting the bar, the post, missing chances and it could have just been fate that it ended up that way.”

Trafford warmed up for the final by keeping a clean sheet for England’s young Lions in a 4-0 win against France Under-21s at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium last weekend.

Growing up in a farming family in Greysouthen, near Cockermouth, Trafford admits his early exposure to football was fairly minimal, and the goalkeeping heroes he hopes to emulate in the England senior team were those he got to see on the TV.

“When I was young I liked Rob Green – and then he made that mistake and because I was young and didn’t really understand anything he wasn’t my favourite anymore,” he smiled.

“Then it was Joe Hart because he was pretty much ever-present for England when I was growing up but even when Jordan Pickford came in, I was only 16 at the 2018 World Cup, Year 11 at school, so I looked up to him in a way as well.”

But there is no doubt which keeper is at the top of Trafford’s all-time best list.

“Petr Cech – Chelsea won the Premier League the first year I got into football, so I saw him and he was my favourite,”

“I didn’t really understand goalkeeping back then, it just so happened he was in the team I’d decided to support. My family weren’t really into football at all, so I just picked out the team that was doing the best at the time and that happened to be Chelsea."