At sunrise on Sunday, the 34,000-strong White army was on the move.

Like many others, I had hardly slept a wink during the night before.

The Wanderers family was converging on the national stadium, from far and wide, from Argentina to Australia, following in our forebearers’ footsteps of 100 years ago, when we opened Wembley in style.

The motorways were just a sea of coaches and cars, all decked in Wanderers colours as we swept south, overwhelming every service station on the way. It was our big day out - the Papa Johns Trophy final.

Coaches were herded into a search area, where they were relieved of any smuggled alcohol before parking right next to the stadium.

Phone cameras exploded into use with friends and families and any celebrities met.

I followed a very proud Mayor of Bolton, Akhtar Zaman, into the ground and had to smile as his fine mayoral regalia set the metal detectors off.

We headed for the superb Three Lions bar in the second tier and over some decent Camden Pale Ale and chicken burgers, we discussed our chances, with the majority expecting a close encounter but hoping that we could nick it if we played well.

After the trials and tribulations of the recent dark ages, when we came so close to extinction, we were just happy to be there.

Emotions went through the roof, watching our Wanderers walk out on to the Wembley pitch, the fans heartedly singing the National Anthem and was it a good omen when Vernon Kay got his hands on the EFL Trophy?

Bolton were up for it from the kick off and within 10 minutes we were pinching ourselves in amazement as we surged into a two-goal lead through Kyle Dempsey and Dion Charles.

We kept it going for the whole match. Veni, vidi, vici; Bolton came. Bolton saw. Bolton conquered.

We played them off the park. The only disappointment was the referee twice dismissing red card decisions after what looked like bad fouls on Josh Sheehan and Eoin Toal.

The celebrations at the end brought tears of joy to my eyes.

Our team had done it. We had performed brilliantly on the highest stage.

This was our day. This was for everyone connected with Bolton Wanderers.

The fans were singing ‘Sharron Brittan, she’s one of our own’.

And seeing our adopted sons, Conor Bradley and James Trafford, celebrating like two Bolton fans was heartwarming magic.

Today we are all proud to be a Wanderer.