Wingate & Finchley goalkeeper Shane Gore admits he had one of his busier days after his heroics helped to secure the Blues’ place in the third qualifying round of the FA Trophy.

Reece Beckles-Richards opened the scoring after half an hour and Rob Laney then doubled the visitors’ tally in the second half, but Gore was called into action time and again as he faced wave after wave of attack.

The 35-year-old proved equal to the task though and was named the man of the match after keeping a clean sheet in the 2-0 victory.

Keith Rowland’s side will face Merthyr Town or Slough Town in the next round of the Trophy on Saturday November 26 and are one win away from equalling their best ever run in the competition, while they have now won three of their last four games.

“I wasn’t expecting that in the second half, I’ve got to be honest,” said Gore. “It was crazy. Especially when we went 2-0 up, I wasn’t expecting to be that busy.

“I think we started really well, took the lead in the first half and we went in confident at half-time. Then we got the second goal and I think they maybe opened up a bit. Maybe they had a nothing-to-lose attitude and we were a little bit lacklustre, and it was a busy afternoon – probably one of the busiest I’ve had for a while.

“But, as we said in the dressing room afterwards, we’re in the next round of the Trophy and it doesn’t matter how you get there. It’s all about the result and it keeps this little run going.

“We’ve had a couple of blips and we keep trying to respond and that’s what we’ve done – we’ve responded again.

“We’ve got some confidence at the moment. You look at the way we came back into the game [against Merstham] last Tuesday - that just shows a bit of resilience, a bit of character that we maybe didn’t have at the start of the season.”