By Tony Leighton

Wycombe Wanderers manager Paul Lambert is confident his team can reach the League 2 Play-Off final at Wembley by winning their two-leg semi against Stockport County - despite the Chairboys having suffered a 6-0 trouncing against the Hatters in December.

That defeat, their heaviest of the season, left promotion hopefuls Wycombe two places and two points behind the Play-Off places and with pundits questioning their ability to last the pace of a testing season.

But they immediately proved the doubters wrong, winning five and drawing the other one of their following six matches to put themselves sixth in the table and with a four-point cushion between themselves and the teams outside the Play-Off spots.

Perhaps even more importantly they have ended the League campaign on a good note, losing only one of their final eight matches including a goalless draw with Stockport that ended a run of six straight wins for Jim Gannon's team.

The Hatters were flying at the time and threatening to end the season with automatic promotion. But they eventually took only one point from four matches before beating Brentford 1-0 in their final League game.

That left them fourth in the table and four points ahead of seventh-placed Wycombe, who ended with a 2-1 win against Bradford City. Now comes a battle for a Wembley chance to clinch promotion to League 1.

Can Wycombe beat Stockport over two legs? "Absolutely!" says former Scotland international and Livingston manager Lambert. "I'm confident, and more importantly so are my players.

"The most pleasing thing for me is that they give you everything they've got. You'd be worried if you thought they weren't really at it, but that's not the case and I don't think it matters who we're playing at this stage.

"We've had a terrific season so far and hopefully we've got three more games to go. If we could go through and win at Wembley it would give the club one of the greatest things it's ever had.

"The players won't change their demeanour, they know what they've got to do and I know they'll go out and give it their all. We need the fans to come out in force as well, and I'm sure they will."

Wycombe are at home in Sunday's first leg of the semi-final, whose second leg takes place at Stockport on the following Saturday. In the other semi Darlington entertain Rochdale on Saturday then visit the Dale a week later.

"That will be a tough contest," says Lambert as he assesses sixth-placed Darlington's clash with fifth-placed Rochdale, the latter going into the semi-final as favourites after winning seven and drawing three of their final 10 matches.

Darlington, on the other hand, had not won in nine matches - from which they took only four points - before collecting what should be a morale-boosting 2-0 win at automatically promoted Peterborough United on Saturday.

Lambert says: "Yes, Darlington had been on a losing streak and yes, Rochdale have had a great run - but you can bet anything you like that what's happened in the past will count for nothing in the semi-final. It will be exciting, but very hard - just like our semi."