MICHAEL BAKARE is relishing the chance to help Connah's Quay Nomads become the first Welsh team to reach the Scottish Challenge Cup final.

Nomads' top-flight title rivals, The New Saints, have twice reached the semi-finals of the competition, only to fall at the last hurdle.

Now it's Nomads' turn to see if they can secure a place in next month's final as Edinburgh City make their way to the Deeside Stadium on Saturday evening.

"It would be a great achievement for the club," declared former Wrexham attacker Bakare. "All of the boys are really looking forward to playing in the game.

"It's always good to be in a semi-final with the opportunity to get into a final, so we will work hard, try our best to perform well and hopefully the result will follow.

"I don't know if home advantage really counts in the league, but it probably does in this cup because they are coming from so far away."

On the challenge of Edinburgh, Bakare is expecting a difficult test from the Scottish League Two outfit.

He continued: "I think that it's tough because you don't know the players, who all come across professional.

"Most of the teams you play against are full-time and it reminds me of when I played in the National League."

Bakare endured a difficult time of things at Wrexham, playing just eight times during the 2016/17 campaign that saw Gary Mills replaced by Dean Keates in the hotseat.

But Bakare said: "There's been a few changes in manager and the results have been up and down, but hopefully they get to the play-offs.

"It was an interesting time at Wrexham. We had a change in manager and I couldn't really get going.

"It's good that there are doing well and it's good that I'm here and doing well, and hopefully we can both get success at the end of the season."

Bakare caught the eye on Friday as he produced two bits of individual skill to help Nomads on their way to a 6-2 success over Caernarfon.

The 32-year-old bamboozled the Caernarfon defence to win a first-half penalty, before completing the scoring with a fine run and finish.

"I thought it was a good performance and a good team performance," said Bakare. "To be honest, I thought I could have played better, but I will keep building game on game.

"I didn't think I was going to score, but I just kept on playing and luckily I got a goal."

On his dazzling footwork, Bakare explained that it comes naturally, adding: "You can't really anticipate what the defender is going to do.

"In that sort of area you play what you see and hope something comes off."