Luke O’Nien says the season he spent on loan at Wealdstone has been the making of him.

The midfielder, who spent 14 years at Watford, reckons it was last year on loan among the muck and the boots in the Conference South that really set him on the right road.

O’Nien scored his first professional Football League goal on Saturday, heading Wanderers into the lead after just 70 seconds against Northampton Town.

And afterwards he paid tribute to the Wanderers coaching staff for working on his heading and to Wealdstone for making him match ready.

Any YouTube aficionado will know all about O’Nien’s circus-like football skills, juggling footballs and golf balls and volleying footballs into basketball hoops, but he says it was his year spent at Wealdstone that put him on the right track to a Football League career.

He said: “I have got to thank the Wealdstone manager Gordon Bartlett. I played 40-odd games for them last season and learned a great deal down at Conference South Level. It is tough down there, it’s a very hard league to play in and I learned a lot about all aspects of the game.

“I would recommend a move to that level for any youngster trying to make it in the Football League. It is a good platform to learn and to build from.”

Prior to that O’Nien had been playing for Watford Under-21s after joining the Hornets when he was just nine and he made one appearance for Watford as substitute before being released this summer.

He said: “I owe Wealdstone a lot. Under-21s is not proper football. It’s not realistic. In Under-21s you get a lot of time on the ball and you don’t get that in the League. Under-21s football doesn’t prepare you well enough. When I came back to Under-21s football after being at Wealdstone I had more time on the ball.

“I loved it at Wealdstone, I started to read second balls better and that’s something I’m still learning. I’m fortunate to be where I am now but I’m not going to take it for granted. I’ve got to keep fighting for my shirt and keep fighting for the points because that means everything at Wycombe.”

As well as the Wealdstone influence he was quick to thank the Wycombe coaching staff after his maiden goal when he ghosted in behind the defence to head Danny Rowe’s long diagonal pass into the back of the Northampton net.

He said: “I have worked hard on my heading with the management team here before and after training. For me, you are only as good as your weakness so I knew I had to work on heading. Heading is a big part of the game in League Two. You have to win your headers in the middle of the park and I’ve worked hard on that. It’s a crucial part of the game.

“There’s a lot of balls in the air in the midfield and you’ve got to win them. It is something I will continue to work on so I can win more headers in the middle and hopefully get some more headed goals as well.”

But O’Nien says he would have swapped that breakthrough goal for three points on Saturday as Northampton fought back to earn a 3-2 win which knocked Wanderers off top top and took the shine off his day.

O’Nien said: “I would have been much happier not to have scored and to have won the game.”

The goal still cost one Wanderers fan £100 after earlier in the week the supporter pledged to cough up that amount for the club’s share scheme if the midfielder broke his duck.