Saddlers hotshot Cook eyes a Wembley double

The midfielder reckons Dean Smith's men can combine a League One play-off challenge with success in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy.

They are just one round from the final of the JPT and will face Preston – who beat Notts County 1-0 last night – for a place at Wembley while Cook's brace in Saturday's 3-1 win against Barnsley helped moved them within four points of the play-off spots.

"We said at the beginning of the season that we wanted to do something extraordinary and to be where we are in the JPT is brilliant," said Cook. "With the depth we have in our squad, it all bodes very well for us.

"The JPT is a bonus and obviously it would be brilliant for the fans and the club to get to the final – but the League comes first until that JPT game comes around .

"The lads are training brilliantly – with the stuff you see in training, we can play at a higher level easily.

"It's credit to the gaffer and Richard O'Kelly for getting us fit and getting us ready for this season. I think teams come to stop us playing rather than doing their own thing which, for a manager and for the lads themselves, is brilliant to see."

The Saddlers have recovered from a stuttering start to put themselves within shooting distance of the top six, and former Sunderland man Cook believes the squad is good enough to sustain a promotion challenge.

"The start we had wasn't the greatest but we knew we were a good enough team," he said. "We'd seen the squad.

"Then we had players coming in like Anthony Forde and Mathieu Manset, who would both start in most League One teams – and the young lads are coming through too like Rico Henry."