HEREFORD FC manager Pete Beadle says yesterday's FA Vase Final performance should not overshadow what the club have achieved this season.

The Bulls – backed by around 20,000 supporters at Wembley – put in a very abject display in the second half, allowing Morpeth Town to motor on and clinch a 4-1 scoreline.

"We have won an awful lot of games this year, so we're not used to losing," said Beadle.

"But, what we have done when we have lost, we have learnt from it and come back stronger and that will be the demands for next season.

"However, the performance shouldn't be overshadowed by what we have achieved this year as a football club.

"And with 20,000 fans supporting us, hopefully we have put Herefordshire football back on the map again.

"Other than the birth of my children, certainly in football, this was my proudest day – to lead out a group of players that have been magnificent all season.

"It was a really proud moment for me, we are just disappointed that we couldn't give them what we really wanted.

"But I would like to think that they will appreciate the effort and commitment the players have put in all season.

"The final will soon pale into insignificance – it will be all about the day and 'do you remember the day we went to Wembley and the day we took 20,000 fans?

"The team just didn't quite perform on the day.

"But our number one aim was always to get out of the league and, as far as I'm concerned, every single one of those players in the changing room is a champion.

"They've won their league and they've won two other cups.

"So, to me, they're winners and champions.

"Now the demands and the standards will go up even more next year because we've got to perform again next year."

Beadle added that the atmosphere in the dressing room was very flat after the match.

"It was more so because they wanted to put on a performance and it didn't quite happen," said Beadle.

"We prepared properly, as we've always done, we had done our homework on them, as we've always done and the players knew their jobs, as they always do.

"After 20 minutes, we could have been two or three-nil up and, at one goal, they are always in the game.

"They then took their chance, a little bit of a mistake by us, and scoring so early in the second half put us on the back-foot.

"It's hard work then as you've got to get back in the game.

"They are on a crest of a wave, then the third goal goes in and whatever we did just didn't happen for us.

"For me, I have learnt more about them from this result and I hope they have learnt more."

Morpeth's victory meant a team from the Northern League have won the FA Vase for the seventh time in the last eight years.

"I think it shows they're gritty and determined and hard-working," added Beadle.

"We've watched them play, but maybe we didn't get a true reflection of of them because they've had so many games.

"I know they've mixed their team around a bit so maybe we didn't get the right reflection of them in that we didn't do enough homework.

"But credit to them, because certainly in the second half, they went about their business superbly and they were the better team on the day and deserved to win.

"We had two weeks without a game, but we've worked hard and there's a tendency in games of picking up an injury or team and you don't know whether to play a game.

"But hindsight is a fabulous thing, my players have been fantastic for 63 games this year and maybe it was just one too many."