Jonathan Redhead Lowestoft Town midfielder Jamie Godbold admitted he thought his side's name was written on the FA Vase - until two sucker punches snatched it cruelly away.

Jonathan Redhead

Lowestoft Town midfielder Jamie Godbold admitted he thought his side's name was written on the FA Vase - until two sucker punches snatched it cruelly away.

Goals in the 84th and 90th minutes from Kirkham & Wesham substitute Matt Walwyn cancelled out the Blues 11th opener from a Phil Thompson own goal.

And having held the lead for so long and seen the north west side miss several chances, Godbold believed he was going to walk up the Wembley steps to collect the Vase for the Trawler Boys.

Instead, he was left with the scant consolation of runners-up medal.

"I can't really put into words how I'm feeling now," the diminuitive midfielder said. "The lads are absolutely gutted, just looking around at each other. There's not really much you can say.

"I thought we contained them really well, got the ball in front of us. We got men behind the ball and the longer the game went on the more men they pushed forwards and left gaps at the back for us.

"We never took advantage of that and when Neil (Plaskett) unfortunately went off we had to change a little bit.

"It cost us really as they brought on a couple of whippets up front and they did the business.

"They were two sucker punches right near the end and after a couple of blocks on the line that we had we just felt it was going to be our day. But it wasn't to be in the end."

Godbold revealed that Town expected Walwyn to come on and cause them problems, having done so in the semi-final second leg against Needham Market and bagged the winner for K&W. But he said there was little Lowestoft side, which was starting to run out of steam in the sweltering Wembley heat could do stop him.

"To be honest we spoke to Needham and they did exactly the same to Needham and they were unprepared.

"We knew the lad (Walwyn), was going to be a threat but probably for most of the time we dealt with that," Godbold said. "I looked at the clock on 60 and thought there was a long time to go and the next thing I knew it was 82 and they'd had a couple of clearances off the line and we thought brilliant.

And that 20 minutes went so quickly and you sort of get clock-watching a little bit. But credit to them they attacked us and were really positive throughout the game and we're just sad we couldn't add to that goal. If we'd have done that it would have been dead and buried."

Despite the crushing disappointment of defeat, Godbold said joint managers Micky Chapman and Ady Gallagher have already tried to rally the troops and talk of returning to Wembley next year for another crack at the competition has already started.

"They've (managers) have tried to pep us up a little bit and we've tasted it really and it makes us a little bit more hungry to do it next year," he admitted. "We've regrouped in there and patted each other on the back and thanked each other for a great season.

"Today has been such a fantastic occasion that we really want to come this far again."

Godbold said his day out at Wembley would be one he would never forget, but just wished the result could have been different for the Blues fans, who made up around 75pc of the 19,537 crowd.

"It was proper hairs on your neck standing up when you walked out," he said. "I always dreamed I would walk out at Wembley. You line up and see the flags blue and white. It was amazing. It's a shame we can't get that many at Crown Meadow.

"I hope they had a great day. I hope they enjoyed watching us and hopefully we'll get a few more come and watch us down the Meadow.

"I just really wish we could have done it for them. They turned out in force, from Lowestoft, Gorleston, Yarmouth and all the teams in our league. I wish we could have done it for them."