Joleon Lescott is relishing the FA Cup final in the belief it’s a step towards justifying his decision to leave Wolves in pursuit of honours.

The 26-year-old left Molineux with seven years’ service, after being promised a move if Wolves couldn’t deliver Premier League football.

Along with Robbie Keane, Lescott emerged as one of the best players to have come through the ranks at Molineux for a couple of decades.

Helping the club to promotion through the play-offs in 2003, he was denied a crack at the top flight when he missed their previous Premier League season with a knee injury and got the promise of a move on the back of continued superb form in gold and black.

The Quinton-born centre-back has gone on to prove himself at the top level, helping Everton to a sixth and two fifth-place finishes in the Premier League as well as earning six caps for England as a virtual ever-present in the last three seasons.

Now he faces the might of Chelsea in front of a sell-out Wembley and millions watching worldwide. He is relishing the chance to win his first major piece of silverware.

He said: “I can’t wait for the final and it’s going to be a special day. To win an FA Cup at this stage of my career would be a great achievement.

“I feel young enough to think there will be more. Any player will tell you a career is all about winning medals.

“You don’t look back when you’ve finished and think about the seasons when you qualified for Europe.

“But what is essential is if we do win, we don’t rest on that and think winning a cup means we stop doing what we’re doing.”

Lescott insists it doesn’t matter many neutrals are hoping Everton upset Chelsea and win the final.

Last season Portsmouth became the first club from outside the ‘big four’ to lift the FA Cup since Everton’s 1995 success, although Pompey went into the final as favourites as they faced Championship side Cardiff.

Everton take on 2007 winners Chelsea and many would relish one of the big boys being humbled in the Wembley showpiece, but defender Lescott is reluctant to accept the goodwill that comes with being underdogs.

The Toffees glory days of the 1980s remain fresh for many at the club and Lescott reckons the team of today will be intent on restoring what many see as their rightful place among England’s elite, rather than to satisfy the nation’s appetite for a Cup shock.

He said: “We couldn’t care less whether people outside the club want us to win the FA Cup or not.

“We just want to do it for ourselves and our own fans. There are plenty of people at this club who will tell you Everton are simply getting back to where we should be.

“If we do win, we’ll show a lot of other clubs how to go about trying to win trophies too, but we’re not going out there trying to win to set an example for anyone else.

“What we care about is winning it for Everton.”

Under the superb leadership of manager David Moyes, Everton have gradually built a credible challenge to the ‘big four’ over the last five years.

Lescott believes the Toffees will be taken even more seriously, if they can secure their first piece of silverware in 12 years.

He said: “The main difference for us this time is if we do win, people will start to say ‘wow, they really can win a lot of trophies’, whereas maybe people think that already about Chelsea.

“To get a trophy and not just any trophy but the biggest outside the league or Champions League, would really take us forward.”

But Lescott admits Everton will have to be at their best to topple a Chelsea side still smarting from being dumped out of the Champions League at the semi-final stage and finishing third in the Premier League.

He said: “We know what we’ve got to do, but we know if we let our concentration slip for a minute then we’ll get punished.”

Lescott believes the fans who will descend on Wembley in their thousands tomorrow are a key influence, as the team thanked the Everton followers by performing a lap of honour after their 3-1 win against West Ham on May 16.

He said: “We’re playing with confidence and the lap of honour we did was special. The fans have been there for us all season and it was a time for them.

“It’s always important for us to applaud them for their support as much as it is for them to applaud us.”