VETERAN Cherries star Lee Bradbury believes the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy represents his best opportunity to play at the home of Football – with time running out on his Wembley dream.

The 34-year-old has enjoyed a long career, but the lack of a national stadium appearance leaves a gaping hole on his CV.

While some question the importance of the competition, Bradbury sees it as his best chance of gracing the hallowed turf for the first time.

Speaking ahead of Cherries’ JPT clash at Northampton Town tonight (7.45pm), the former Manchester City player told the Echo: “It’s a good chance to play at Wembley.

“People look at it and think it’s not a very good competition but I think it’s great for lower league clubs to have a chance to play at the national stadium.

“You won’t get any better chance than this.

“I’ve never played at Wembley so it’s a big carrot for me. It’s something I want to do in my career and I’m running out of years.”

Northampton inflicted Cherries’ first league defeat of the campaign when the teams met at Sixfields in August and Eddie Howe’s men will be keen to get revenge.

“We feel we owe them because we went up there in the league and they caught us on an off day,” said Bradbury.

“We want to show them what a good side we are.

“Whatever team we put out, we’ll be trying to win the game. We want to go on and get to Wembley because there’s no point being in it if you don’t want to win it.

“Teams will sometimes put out their reserve side, but we haven’t got the luxury of doing that so we’ll be trying to go out and beat them, for sure.”

Meanwhile, Bradbury has vowed to keep up his combative style, despite walking a disciplinary tightrope.

He racked up his fourth yellow card of the season during Cherries’ 0-0 draw at Port Vale on Saturday and a further caution would bring a one-game ban.

Bradbury added: “You can say it will change the way you play, but then you get caught up in the game and the emotions of the game.

“I’ll have to be a bit careful, though, because if I get one more then I’ll miss a game and it’s a long time until they get wiped out.

“We haven’t got many fit as it is.”

The Echo was last night unable to obtain a response from the Football League after Cherries confirmed that permission for Eddie Howe to make another emergency loan signing had been withdrawn. It is hoped the league will issue a statement today.

Northampton Town: (from) Dunn, Johnson, Hinton, McCready, Holt, Gilligan, Curtis, Dyer, Marshall, McKay, Guinan, Brown, Osman, Rodgers, Jacobs, Harris, Mulligan.

Cherries: (from) Jalal, Bradbury, Pearce, Garry, Cummings, Feeney, Robinson, Hollands, Edgar, Pitman, Connell, Fletcher, Bartley, McQuoid, Ings, Stockley, Tindall.