Abbot's side lost out to Southampton in last year's final

Carlisle United boss Greg Abbott has praised his side after they booked a place at Wembley for the second consecutive year.

The Cumbrians' won 4-3 over two legs against Huddersfield and will now face Brentford in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy final on Sunday, 3 April.

"It's a fantastic achievement," Abbott told BBC Radio Cumbria.

"The attitude of the players was magnificent, and it's no small feat, the players deserve a well done."

United ran out 4-0 winners at Brunton Park to give the club a significant first-leg lead, but were given a scare in Tuesday night's second leg, going down 3-0.

"We battered them at our place, but tonight we got a bit more of that treatment," Abbott added.

"Huddersfield threw the ball forward, put our back four under massive pressure, they didn't play great football but did what they had to do which was get up a head of steam.

"We did get a bullying at times, but go through their team, look at the quality they've got in their team.

"We've had a massive amount of determination, and that is what has got us through."

Last season United were beaten 4-1 in the final by Southampton, but several of the current Carlisle squad will be making their first appearances at the national stadium, including defender Frankie Simek, who joined the club from Sheffield Wednesday in July 2010.

"It's going to be an unbelievable day out," Simek said.

"Obviously quite a few of the lads were there last year, and it wasn't such a good day, hopefully we can put that one right.

"I have got a lot of people coming over from America, so I should have a good fan-base there.

"The fans were brilliant tonight, and the support were loud throughout the game, from the warm-up to the final whistle."

The second leg loss was Carlisle's third defeat in as many games, a run that has dented their hopes of a play-off push.

And French forward Francois Zoko, who scored in the club's 3-1 northern area semi-final win over Sheffield Wednesday, is confident the club can use their cup success as a platform for an upturn in their league form going into Saturday's trip to Southampton.

"I am very happy because it's a magic stadium, every player who comes to England wants to go to Wembley, it's a dream," said Zoko.

"Everybody was thinking about Wembley, but now we are going to Wembley we can concentrate on the league games.

"We can focus on the league game [against Southampton], and I am confident for the next game, we can go in the right direction."

United have reached the final of the Football League Trophy six times, a record for the competition, but have won just once - beating Colchester United on penalties in 1996/97.

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