Manager Harry Redknapp has handed a large share of the credit for Portsmouth's outstanding season to his assistant Tony Adams.Pompey, sixth in the Premier League, scraped a 1-0 FA Cup semi-final victory over West Brom at Wembley through Kanu's goal 10 minutes after half time, plus a solid defence.
And Redknapp, 61, admitted: "A lot of what we've achieved is down to Tony and our first-team coach Joe Jordan. They deserve a lot of credit.
"I love having Tony with me. What a player he was, what a captain. The nearest thing I've seen to him as a captain is Martin Johnson, who has just got the England rugby job.
"I'd love Tony to be manager of this club when my time is up - one day. There's no problem there and I'm not worried about him taking it. And Joe's done brilliantly, you would never get anybody more staunch.
"So I'm lucky to be have two such smashing guys."
Although Adams, who was recruited by Redknapp at the start of last season and persuaded to extend his contract this term, tackles all facets of coaching with the squad, he was obviously a master of the defensive art for England and Arsenal.
Pompey's progress to the final has not been pretty but they have conceded just one goal in the cup and kept 20 clean sheets in total this season with the resilience of centre-backs Sol Campbell and Sylvain Dustin, plus the enduring brilliance of veteran goalkeeper David James.
Redknapp, who signed a new three-year contract last August, loves sticking to the principles of good passing he learned at West Ham but Pompey have been tighter by far since the arrival of Adams, the inspiration of Arsenal's old 1-0 generation.
His spell in charge at Wycombe Wanderers was unsuccessful but he studied coaching abroad in Holland for a spell and wants to complete a good grounding before going into management again, higher up the ladder this time.
Milan Baros, on loan from French champions Lyon, missed several chances for Pompey but denied he deliberately handled in the lead up to Kanu's winner.
He said: "The ball may have touched my hand as I tried to control it on my chest but it was not deliberate."
Kanu, who will consider a new one-year extension to his current contract this summer, hopes to start an FA Cup final for the first time after twice being a substitute for Arsenal.
He said: "It was important that we did not disappoint the fans because they were fantastic. When we were drawn away to Manchester United in the quarter finals no-one thought we would get to the final. Now we have to win it."
James, who barely had a save to make despite Pompey's poor performance, admitted: "We have made it hard for ourselves in every round so far, but we have made it through to the final and it is a tremendous effort by the lads.
"It has been an FA Cup this year where all the favourites have been getting knocked out, and we struggled against West Brom, but I thought we managed to do enough.
"I've been to two FA Cup finals before and lost both. So this is a chance to rectify that. I am confident enough in this side to believe we are good enough to win it."
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