What a week it has been for all of us connected with Oxford United.

From the disappointment of seeing a fantastic FA Cup run come to an end, to the massive high of confirming our spot in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final at Wembley, it has been nothing if not entertaining.

To have booked our place in a cup final for the first time in 30 years is a huge achievement for everyone involved with Oxford United.

We are very much looking forward to taking on Barnsley on April 3.

The second leg of the area final was always going to be a tense affair.

We had no doubt Millwall were going to prove very difficult opponents and they certainly threw everything at us.

I talked with the players prior to the game about the importance of maintaining our discipline throughout the 90 minutes.

It is critical in big games as it is easy to get sucked into the passion of the occasion and make silly mistakes.

I had a feeling there would be a lot of cards issued during the course of the evening, so I wanted to ensure we didn’t lose any players through lack of concentration.

For us to overcome a League One side pushing for promotion into the Championship speaks volumes for the calibre of players we have at the club, and the sheer determination they had to win the tie.

We have set out to recruit players who are not only good enough to hold their own in this division, but can also compete at a higher level.

I feel the team have really showed that over the two games against Millwall.

The fans were magnificent and gave us that extra push we needed to achieve the result, especially after we went a goal down.

It will be the first trip to Wembley for many of the players, and for me as a manager, so we all took the opportunity on Tuesday evening to celebrate the result – especially the chairman!

We are still in the midst of a very busy period of games, but it isn’t every day you win a semi-final, so I even allowed the players to enjoy the night.

Everyone at the club is now looking forward to what will be a great weekend for the football club, regardless of the result.

We have worked extremely hard to get to the final and we will certainly enjoy the day, but be under no illusions – we will be determined to get our hands on the trophy.

The commercial staff are in full flow ahead of the game already and 40,000 tickets have been released.

It would be incredible if we could sell the full allocation and do enough to persuade some of those who don’t watch on a regular basis that there is something to see.

It was back to business on Thursday to refocus on the biggest prize, promotion at the end of the season.

We travel to Exeter full of confidence, but we are also aware that although we finished the game with a convincing result when we played them on Boxing Day, we also had luck on our side, particularly in the first half.

We will need to have our wits about us to secure three points today.

We have made some good additions to the squad this week as we welcome back Chris Maguire and Zeli Ismail joins us on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

They will both be hoping to make a difference on the pitch this afternoon.