I’m bitterly disappointed – we wanted that play-off place.

A host of disallowed goals at Chichester put an end to the team’s battle for a play-off place on Saturday.

The side had closed the gap on the teams above over recent weeks after a brilliant run, but ultimately it was a case of finding the right form, too late.

As Ady Pennock reflected on the game and the season – he said there were still many positives to take away.

He said: “I’m bitterly disappointed. I haven’t seen the game back yet, but there were five disallowed goals, all from the same linesman. I felt at least three were onside. The tackle on Olly was disgusting as well and should have been a red.

“We started slowly, but after 15 minutes we ran the game. We then lost Olly and Dan through injury, but we had the chances. You’ve got to say the offside decisions and not finishing our chances killed us in the end. There was also a blatant penalty turned down.

“We’ve been great over the past 10 games and finished the season so strongly as one of the most inform teams. But we can’t blame one match. We should have finished in the play-off places and should have already been up there.”

Injuries? Red cards? Conceding late goals? What does Ady consider the areas that have hampered the season most?

He continued: “I thought at least half of our sending offs at the beginning of the season were through poor decisions from the officials. You can say we had a discipline problem, but so many yellows were given for innocuous challenges. It’s funny we are talking about the officials again at the end of the season, it’s come full circle.

“It’s hard not to wonder why we seemed to be on the end of so many bad decisions.

“Away from that, our form at the beginning of the season wasn’t good enough. We had a hangover from losing out in the play-off final. We then had to play a host of games with nine or 10 men, had injuries to Dan Smith, Samir, Eddie, and the Sams, to name a few.

“These aren’t excuses, it’s just the reality of the situation.

“Then we look at our form. The home form is one of the best in the division, but our away form hasn’t been good enough.”

With almost double the points taken at home than away, why does Ady think it has been so difficult replicate their form away from home?

He continued: “There are some good teams there, but we have lost games to lower teams we should not have been losing. I feel we missed someone like Samir a lot, someone who knows how to close out a game would have helped us turn some of those draws into wins, or losses into draws or wins. It’s a big loss – he’s been hard to replace.

“We’ve conceded some silly last minute goals, which we should be defending better and being more savvy.

“We’ve had a tendency to sit back when we are winning by the odd goal, and I’m wanting the boys to be braver and keep pushing. The longer you sit back, you are just inviting pressure.”

With one of the youngest squads in the league, Ady has put a team together that can continue to grow in strength and confidence.

He said: “People forget just how young our squad is. We have some excellent younger players learning the game. Will they make mistakes? Yes. But we know we don’t have the budget of many of the top half of the league, so we have to blend youth with experience.

“The club is trying new things which will help the finances which in my opinion are great. It’s new and fresh. The supporters need to get behind the club and support some of the new ideas. If you got half the supporters down to the music event for instance, on top of all the new people that will be coming to the ground, it will make a massive difference and paves the way for the club to keep trying new things.”

Ady saved the last words for the supporters, who have continued to support the team through thick and thin.

He continued: “I feel for the supporters. We all wanted to be up there with the chance of promotion. I felt if we got into the play-off places, we’d have a great chance of going up, with our form. No one would have wanted to play us.

“The support has been brilliant, home and away. Hopefully they can see what we have tried to do here. I’ve had to rebuild the squad from scratch and bring in players that will always give 100 per cent. I think you can see my teams have passion. They want to be here and play for the badge.

“I hope the supporters will come along to the Cray game and clap the boys off after a season that saw us just miss out on a play-off place. We were in the play-off final last season and just missed out this season. I think the boys deserve to be applauded. They’ll come back stronger and wiser next season and hungry to go again.”