FRANCOIS Zoko laughs when he mentions the great weight on his shoulders.

A smile is never far from the Ivorian striker and he lights up again at the mention of his FA Cup claim to fame.

Forget Didier Drogba and the Toure brothers, Zoko is the last player from the Ivory Coast still standing in the competition. It is west African as much as West Yorkshire pride on the line at the Madejski on Monday.

“All my country will rely on me now,” he joked. “I have the whole country on my shoulders – it feels very heavy.

“Didier Drogba scored in four cup finals. No pressure, I’ll have to score three in the final!”

Zoko did not know Drogba before City’s epic fourth-round triumph at Stamford Bridge. But they met afterwards and the Chelsea striker invited him into the home dressing room.

“It was good to go in their changing room and he was pleased for me.

“He said we deserved to beat Chelsea but also told me ‘now, you have to win it’. It was nice of him.

“I hope he saw our performance against Sunderland. Now we have to do that again against Reading.”

And yet the Ivory Coast media have not been beating a path to Zoko’s door. His contribution as a substitute has passed almost unnoticed with the press back home.

“There should be more (attention) but it’s not as if I’m playing the games, it’s the same team.

“I still come on as a substitute but people don’t see it like that. They should take more and more interest in us because this is not just about one game.”

Zoko did not come off the bench at Chelsea but has done his bit with five sub outings in City’s remarkable run to within one game of Wembley.

He still had time to make an impression on Reading – or rather skipper Alex Pearce, as an aerial collision with the back of Zoko’s head broke the defender’s nose.

The sight of Pearce covered in blood and stripping down to his pants on the touchline was one of the more memorable shots of a contest that was high on endeavour but low on incident.

Zoko grinned again: “He should have let me take the ball then. But it’s good for the next game.

“They came here to close the game and play for a draw. It will be different next time.”

Zoko has been a Wembley winner before, lifting the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy with Carlisle in his first season in England in 2011.

He played in the 1-0 win over Brentford and was a regular starter in two years with the Cumbrians. It was a similar story with today’s opponents Notts County and at Stevenage – but Zoko has found opportunities at Valley Parade far more limited.

Zoko made his 17th City appearance at Coventry in midweek but that was only his second start – and he was taken off at half-time.

His cameo role has taken some getting used to but it is not in Zoko’s character to be beating down the manager’s door. He takes a more philosophical view.

“Sometimes when you want something it can take a long time to come,” he added. “That’s not just with football but in life.

“I’ll always be a confident man. You want to play as a competitor but you have to stay calm and work.

“We are a good team with good players. When you see the players doing well, you can’t say ‘why am I not playing’. I’m a Bradford player and I’m pleased when they win.

“Obviously I want to play and for that you have to keep your fitness level high. So when the chance comes you are ready.

“It’s difficult even more for me because I’m used to playing every season. At all my other clubs I play more than I sit on the bench.

“It’s a different situation for me to manage but sometimes you have to be patient.

“You have competitive frustration, that is normal. If you don’t have that then you have nothing to do as a footballer.

“But you have to be clever and manage the situation and understand why. When you do that, you might not want to accept it but you can deal with it.”

There’s no doubting Zoko’s popularity in the dressing room – “I like to look after my guys”. The reaction that followed his first goal, which turned out to be the winner against Crawley, showed that.

As Phil Parkinson said afterwards, everyone was so pleased to see him off the mark.

Zoko added: “It’s always good for a striker to score but it’s far more important that the team win. We needed the three points and we worked hard for that.

“You don’t really think about the goal. At the end if it’s the winning goal, then great, but it’s not my first thought when I go to the game – that’s about my team winning. It should be the same with all the players.

“Sometimes it’s not about one player. It’s not about Francois Zoko but what the team want to achieve.

“Everybody is working the same way to achieve success. It’s good to be patient.

“You can go somewhere else where the club is playing for nothing and you’re just there. You might think ‘okay, I don’t want to stay’ and you go back – but it’s not like that.

“The players are doing well, training is good and you have a good relationship with everybody.”

That relationship will grow even stronger if City can come through Monday’s second bite at Reading and book their Wembley return to face Arsenal in the last four.

“For me, our season is now the league,” said Zoko. “The FA Cup is good but our every-day life is the league.

“But I know that it is a big competition and very important in England. I live in Nottingham and everyone is watching the FA Cup.

“Can we have both? We are still in a good position.”