LIAM Kitching has never been to Wembley before but scored the vital goal that meant Barnsley will play at the national stadium on Bank Holiday Monday.

The centre-back headed home a Luca Connell cross midway through the first half as the Reds beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0 on Friday evening in their semi-final second leg.

Kitching had netted a famous goal in a 4-2 league win over Sheffield Wednesday two months earlier but prefers the play-off strike which secured another meeting with the Owls at Wembley.

“It’s definitely my favourite goal, for the importance of it,” Kitching told the Chronicle.

“It was the most important win we’ve had so far. We’ve had a fantastic season but to be in the play-offs now and to have a performance like that just shows how far we’ve come. I think we played fantastic over the two legs, and showed how much of good team we are. It shows the togetherness is there.”

Kitching is now looking forward to the final against Barnsley’s local rivals.

“It’s my first time at Wembley. I can’t wait. It’s a Yorkshire derby. There’s nothing better. It couldn’t be a bigger game for us. We all looking forward to it.

“We’re going there for nothing less but to beat them.”

Kitching and his fellow defenders kept a clean sheet despite some pressure in the second half.

“It’s not just us at the back always defending. It’s throughout the whole team - the press, everything. We keep our discipline and it just shows we can keep clean sheets against quality teams.”

Barnsley celebrated their win at Oakwell with a lap of honour in front of their fans.

“The scenes at the end were amazing. You can’t really describe it. It just happened so fast.”

On his goal, Kitching said: “I saw it just come out to Luca and I thought ‘with his quality he’s going to whip it straight in here.’ Luckily I jumped, it hit me and it went in so off I went.”