On the eve of our encounter with Darlington, Gareth Evans was confident that the many benefits from the midweek trip to Upton Park would be taken into the Silkmen's league campaign. The young striker grabbed his first goal of the season and was keen to quickly add to the tally.

"The whole experience was mind blowing. From the changing rooms to the size of the ground, the quality of the pitch it really was something I won't forget in a hurry," enthused Gareth.

"The fact that I scored made it even better. Ahmed put in a great corner and I managed to get my head to the ball first and it went right where I wanted it to. We've not been scoring enough goals so to get ahead early on was a real nerve settler."

"And the longer the game went on the more you sensed their frustration. Every pass that went astray was greeted with boos from their fans and as the clocked ticked down we really began to feel we could do it. The support we received from our fans was also a big boost and really helped lift us when they started to put us under pressure."

"But it's a massive difference coming up against Premier League players. The biggest thing you notice is their speed of thought. You close them down like you would a League Two player but they still seem to have so much time to spray the ball about. You seem to do so much more running."

"We pushed them all the way though and in the end were harshly treated by the final scoreline. It didn't help that we didn't seem to get any decisions on the night and when Izak was unfairly sent off in my opinion we just didn't have the legs to see out extra time."

"But I think we can feel rightly proud of our performance and that was the feeling amongst the team after the game once the disappointment had died down. Thankfully we stayed over that night in London so we didn't have to travel up straight after the game. So there shouldn't be any after effects on Saturday against Darlington and we'll be raring to go."

"I've been asked by so many people why we can't reproduce that kind of performance in the league. Perhaps it's a cup thing as we also played well against Blackpool. But that shouldn't really be an excuse. We know we can do a lot better and we have to start this weekend."

"There's so many positives we can take from Wednesday and it's up to us to prove it was no fluke. And if I can grab another goal at the Moss Rose even better."