FA Vase Final: Stockton Town 0 Thatcham Town 1

Stockton lost 1-0 to Thatcham Town in the FA Vase final on a day when his team were below par in the first half before rallying after the break and coming close to scoring but they were unable to conjure an equaliser.

Dunwell, the one-time Hartlepool United striker who has been boss since 2014, said: “It's disappointing but we're proud of what we've achieved. To bring 4,500 fans and walking out in that stadium is something I'll always remember.

“It's been superb, if you can't enjoy this you shouldn't be in football, the whole place is just unbelievable.

“Coming in on the bus into the stadium, it's huge. To walk through into the changing rooms where every individual has a picture up and messages from their families, they won't forget that.

“Walking out onto that pitch is fantastic. The game just flies by, especially the second half, you turn around and all of a sudden it's the 85th minute.

“We tried to get an equaliser but, unfortunately, it just didn't happen.”

The only goal was scored by Shane Cooper-Clark, his 62nd goal of the season being a penalty after James Ward had fouled Jordan Brown, and Dunwell had no qualms with decision.

“No problems at all with that,” he said. “We gave away a sloppy free-kick on the far side and then switched off.

“We got the wrong side of him and should have stayed on our feet. Michael Arthur was unlucky not to save it to be fair, he's disappointed with himself because he thought he should have saved it.”

Stockton had done reasonably well before the goal without being dangerous, but did not venture forward before half-time once they had fallen 1-0 behind, which was a disappointment for the manager.

“I thought first half we were poor, we were very sloppy,” he admitted.

“To be fair in the first ten, 15 minutes were kept the ball but sloppy passes let us down.

“Chris Stockton had a chance to play Jamie Owens in right at the start and I think if he had passed Jamie would probably have gone on to score. But it's all hindsight now.

“People say if Max Craggs had played it would have been a different outcome but we had a strong enough squad on the day.

“I just think we didn't turn up in the first half and left it too late in the second half.

“It sometimes happens in finals when players don't turn or don't play at their best. Nerves - we spoke about that at half-time, I think nerves got to a few of them. But it's going to, walking out at that stadium.

“It’s how you deal with it and I think in the second half they did. It was just too little too late unfortunately.

“I don't think we got over the penalty in the first half and needed half-time to regroup.

“We had a couple cleared off the line, a couple of half-chances, balls going across the face of goal but we didn't have that luck to get on the end of them and I think that's what you need in games like this.

“To be fair to Thatcham, they had a couple of chances when they hit the bar and could have done better, they had one cleared right at the end.”

It was just not the Teessiders’ day, who have grown rapidly in recent years with yesterday’s appearance at Wembley, despite the result, being their greatest achievement having only formed a men’s team in 2009.

They have come a long way since their Teesside League days – it is only two years since they were in the Wearside League - while this has been their first campaign in the first division of the Northern League, finishing sixth despite losing their first eight league games plus an FA Cup tie.

“This is right at the top,” added Dunwell. “Obviously we have won trophies in the Wearside League where we won all four, we won the Northern League second division at the first attempt.

“But to get to the FA Vase final – we never thought that in our wildest dreams.

“We've done really well and the lads should be really proud of themselves.

“We've got to have a rest, it's been a long season, we've played a lot of games in a short space of time and it's great but we've got to have a rest.

“Then we'll come back after a few weeks and have a chat with the chairman and discuss what we need and where we want to go and hopefully we can come to an agreement where we can push on and hopefully try to go for promotion next season.”

Another promotion would continue Stockton’s success having gone up in back-to-back seasons, in 2016 and 2017, and Dunwell added: “We want to get more and more people to come to the games, not just the Vase games but the league games and get our attendance up and if that happens we can get more media coverage, things like that.

“I hope our fans have enjoyed themselves, it's been helluva trip to make in one day and a lot of them will be at work tomorrow so we appreciate that.

“Hopefully, more can come to the league games as well as the Vase games.’’