PATRICK ROBERTS freely admits that, for much of the autumn, he wondered where his season would end. At no stage of his thinking, however, did he come up with Wembley. A campaign that will end under the arch in north London began with four months of frustration in northern France.

When Roberts joined Ligue 1 side Troyes at the end of August, his season-long loan was supposed to be an opportunity to broaden his footballing education and showcase his talents on a leading European stage. Instead, it turned out to be a complete waste of time.

The 25-year-old was never given an opportunity to prove himself at Troyes, with his only outing in the whole of the first half of the season coming as a 76th-minute substitute in a 3-1 defeat to Lyon in late September. After that, nothing, with his daily trips into training counting for nothing when he was omitted from the matchday squad on a weekend.

By the turn of the year, the then Manchester City loanee had decided that something had to change. He told his employers at the Etihad he wanted to break off his temporary deal in France and return to England, even if that meant having to walk away from City after six-and-a-half years on the club’s books.

City agreed to his request, provided an alternative deal could be arranged that suited all parties. Roberts had a number of different approaches, from clubs in the Championship and League One, but as he pondered his options, something about Sunderland appealed. True, the club were on something of a shaky run, and would go on to lose their head coach, Lee Johnson, just a couple of weeks after Roberts’ move was confirmed.

But in signing an initial six-month contract, with an option for a further year, the winger put his faith in the project that was presented to him by Sunderland sporting director Kristjaan Speakman. Tomorrow afternoon, as he walks out at Wembley for the first time in his career, he can be content in the knowledge that that faith was not misguided.

“It’s been a crazy year,” said Roberts, who previously spent time playing in the North-East during a loan spell at Middlesbrough. “I can’t really believe it’s going to finish with a game at Wembley, to be honest.

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“I look back to October or November, and I was sat in France, wondering what was going on. So, to get an opportunity like this, it’s any footballer’s dream. Ever since I was kid, I’ve dreamed of being involved in an occasion like this at Wembley. To get an opportunity to do it with a club like Sunderland is massive for me.

“As soon as Sunderland came in for me, I jumped at the chance to join – and this was always the aim. The aim was to be in with a shot of getting promotion. The manager has obviously come in with exactly the same aim, and right from the word go, he’s set us up tactically to a tee to achieve that. He puts us on that platform to go out there to do what we do, and right through the team, I think we’ve delivered.”

The challenge now is to deliver one more time to secure promotion to the Championship. Roberts has achieved some notable things in his career, from winning three Scottish Premier League titles with Celtic to playing in the Champions League against Barcelona and on to winning the European Championships with England Under-17s, but the semi-final strike at Hillsborough that took Sunderland to Wembley was a real personal highlight.

The hope is that there will be more to come tomorrow afternoon, with Roberts desperate to help restore the Black Cats to the second tier after four long seasons in League One.

“I’ve never played at Wembley before,” he said. “Normally, at this stage of the season, I’ve been scrapping down the other end of the table. It’s nice to be doing something different for a change.

“It will be a first taste for me, but I’ve played in big games before so hopefully that’s one thing I can bring to this team, that experience of playing in tough places and tough competitions. It’s good for us, and it’s good for the club, but there’s still one more game to go and we need to focus on getting the job done.

“I’ve obviously won a few trophies, and been in some top teams and been around some good players, but I think a journey like this, for a club like this, is definitely right up there in terms of a career high. It’s not over yet though. There’s more things to write, and I’m just glad to have had the opportunity to be part of it.”

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Sunderland dropped out of the play-off positions during Roberts’ early days on Wearside, but Alex Neil’s arrival helped spark a 15-game unbeaten run that culminated in the thrilling second-leg draw against Sheffield Wednesday that set up today’s Wembley final against Wycombe.

The Black Cats have handled the pressure superbly over the last few weeks, remaining unbeaten despite knowing that a solitary slip-up might have proved fatal to their play-off hopes, and Roberts was always confident they would achieve their collective aim, even when it briefly looked as though a top-six finish might have slipping away from them.

“When I came in, I felt a really good feel for the club,” he said. “They’re a top team. They shouldn’t be in League One, but you can’t keep saying that – you’ve got to do it on the pitch and I think we’ve shown what we can do.

“Every week, we’ve shown we can grind things out when we need to, and that’s the sign of a good team, with a good manager and good staff. You bring all that together and you can achieve some good things. We’re focusing on the next game at Wembley, and we’ll give it our all.”

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That next game pits Sunderland against a Wycombe side that saw off MK Dons to reach the final, and will be played in front of a Wembley crowd containing more than 45,000 Black Cats fans.

“The support has always been great this season,” said Roberts. “At home the other day, getting 40-odd thousand was incredible. They showed their support, and you just know they’re going to be there again at Wembley.

“The never-say-die attitude that we have, they have as well, and they want their club to be back at the top. We can only do our best to implement that for them on the pitch by giving our all.

“I think they can be proud of us the way we keep going to the end. All the late goals we’ve scored are not just flukes – the attitude to keep on giving everything has been installed in us from the manager from the day he came in. We’re defensively strong, and we know we can be clinical in the right areas, at the right time. We do that, and it will give us confidence for Wembley.”