IT WILL be nearly midnight when the James Meredith fan club crowd round the TV 10,500 miles away to cheer on City.

A corner of Melbourne will be turned into claret and amber as the defender’s friends and family back home cheer him on from afar.

“They are all getting together to have some dinner and drinks,” said Meredith. “My two younger brothers and sister, mum and dad and a group of about six of my best mates will be there.

“One of them flew over for the Chelsea game and it was fantastic because when we scored that fourth goal, somehow I managed to spot him in the away fans and we were cheering really hard at each other. It was fantastic.

“My dad said if we get to the semi-finals, he’ll fly over. It’ll probably just be my dad and maybe a brother or my sister. The plane tickets aren’t cheap.”

Meredith is used to going it alone. At 16, he flew over solo to join Derby as an apprentice after being spotted by the club’s Australian academy and has not been back.

“I was in the country on my own. At one point I was without a club for six months. I was running in a park in Derby every day on my own like Rocky Balboa.

“At that time I really struggled to get a club, like a lot of players do when they have no experience as a professional.

“I found it really difficult and I was faced with the decision – do I go back home to Australia or do I really give it a good go and try to make something of myself.

“I decided to give it a good go and I ended up going all the way down to the Conference North (with Telford). From there, I’ve had to work as hard as I can to build my career to get to a notable league to do the best I can for myself.”

Glandular fever meant that Meredith missed the Capital One Cup final two years ago but he has four Wembley appearances under his belt, three with York and City’s successful play-off win over Northampton.

Meredith can see parallels with the “history-making” 2013 campaign. Some of the names may have changed but City’s fighting spirit lives on.

“It’s the whole ethos of the club. It’s what’s bred into us by the management staff.

“They are tough and hard and they want workers. We’re in a working class city. We have to work hard, do the right thing and look after ourselves properly.

“That’s what’s built that team spirit and enthusiasm.We have no big-time Charlies at the club, we all work hard for each other.”

Meredith’s interest in football as a kid was piqued by the FA Cup. Now he stands one game away from playing in the world’s oldest club competition at Wembley.

His favourite tale is Wimbledon’s victory in 1988, the year he was born, when they defied the odds to beat Liverpool. He loved a recent TV documentary with the big names from that rags-to-riches story, although he is not sure how he would have got on in the Crazy Gang’s unique dressing-room environment.

“With this tooth [he has a missing incisor] I would have had to put on a brave face,” he laughed.

“It’s been knocked out a couple of times playing football. It happened when I was with York in the Conference and it’s come out a couple of times now.

“I’m just going to wait until the end of the season to get it properly done.”