Dayle Southwell says Romelu Lukaku’s struggles in the Premier League helped provide him with the inspiration to break his Wycombe Wanderers goalscoring duck on Saturday.

The Wanderers forward scored the only goal against Stevenage to mark his 10th Blues appearance with his first strike for the club.

And Southwell revealed Wycombe boss, Gareth Ainsworth, used Lukaku, who ended his own 14-game goal drought with a hat-trick against Sunderland last Monday, as an example to the 22-year-old.

“[Ainsworth] was saying to me that Lukaku has gone 14 games without a goal and has gone and scored a hat-trick,” Southwell explained.

“He believes in me and knows I would not have gone 14 games without a goal and luckily I didn’t go any more games.”

Ainsworth added: “Luckily I was watching the Everton game on Monday and Lukaku got three goals after not scoring for 14 games.

“I said to Dayle that his drought wasn’t as big as he thought it was. I have total faith in him and one of the best strikers in the Premier League has gone 14 games without a goal.

Southwell’s close range finish came at the end of a half in which the striker missed two presentable chances to open the scoring.

On both occasions he rushed his finish and fired wide before tamely passing into the arms of Boro keeper Jamie Jones.

It was another example of the lack of composure which Southwell has occasionally shown throughout his short Wycombe career.

The former Boston United man admitted the pressure has at times affected his game and now hopes he can rediscover the form which made him prolific at National League level.

“I feel it is a big weight off my shoulders really. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to score that first goal and now it has come hopefully they will start flowing,” he said.

“Maybe I was a bit anxious and snatching at chances. I just needed one like that which I could tap home and now the confidence is back I can kick on.”

Southwell’s work rate has helped endear him to Wanderers fans despite his dearth of goals.

He therefore views Saturday’s winner as the first step in repaying both supporters’ and Ainsworth’s faith in him.

“It is an unbelievable feeling. It’s my first Football League goal and it has been a long-time coming,” said Southwell.

“The fans have been brilliant to be fair and the manager stood by me by carrying on playing me because he had faith in me.

“Now that I have this goal, hopefully I can repay them with many more.”