Hogan Ephraim said he only had shooting at goal on his mind when he stepped up to curl home the winning free kick for Wanderers against Cambridge.

It looked a difficult shooting chance from the corner of the box, and with Joe Jacobson also looking interested in taking it a left footed inswinger for someone else to attack looked the most logical option.

But Ephraim, who has experience of playing in the Premier League, had shown touches of class with his passing and close control throughout the match and didn’t want to settle for the ordinary, instead bending the ball around the wall and into the net for the game’s only goal.

The 26-year-old said the way the Cambridge defence had set itself up helped make up his mind to go for goal – in spite of his team mates querying it.

He said: “Sam Wood said to me, what do you want to do with this free kick, and I said I’m whipping it in. JJ [Jacobson] said are you sure, and I said yes. Our attackers and their defenders started very high up – I didn’t think there was much chance of anyone reaching it. It was a nice area to put it in.

“I was aiming for that back stick. I heard Alfie Mawson shout out ‘back post’ as well – that was always in my mind, if I can get it as near to the back post as possible, I’ll be happy.

“If someone else had touched it? I would have been upset they would have nicked my goal.”

It was Ephraim’s maiden goal for Wanderers and ended a comparative goal drought for them while bringing a run of three successive draws to a conclusion.

He said: “The first one is always the hardest to come, so when the free kick hit the back of the net I was over the moon.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to put right. We haven’t scored for a few games so it was nice to break that duck. Hopefully that’s the first of many.”