West Auckland’s hopes of a third Wembley Vase final were crushed by a poor performance in their 2-0 home defeat by Chertsey on Saturday.

West could have few grumbles about their defeat, particularly after a below-par first half in which the Surrey side scored twice to give them a firm grip on the game that they never loosened.

The defeat means that the Northern League won’t have a team at Wembley for the first time since 2008.

Disappointed and angry manager Gary Forrest said; “We were very poor in the first half, I thought we had too many players freeze on the occasion. It had me baffled because the players had been so confident during the run. We had no energy about us, and we were a mile off the pace. I don’t know whether the goal after ten minutes knocked the stuffing out of us or not.

“We were a little bit better in the second half and our decision-making was better, but overall Chertsey deserved the win. Our lads got what they deserved what they got on the day. We should have done better with both goals.

“These games boil down to who makes the best decisions, who makes the fewest mistakes and who takes their chances. Nothing else really matters. On Saturday we made mistakes, bad decisions and didn’t take the chances when they came along. To be fair Chertsey took their chances.”

Chertsey took the lead with their first attack on 10 minutes, when Lewis Jackson hit a terrific 50-yard diagonal pass from midway inside his own half for Dale Binns to instantly control, then run through and roll the ball into the bottom left hand corner of the net.

West went 2-0 down on 28 minutes, when a free kick came into their box from the left, the ball bounced around the box, nobody from West could get it away, and Chertsey defender Quincey Rowe, who had gone up for the free kick, fired past Shane Bland.

It was nearly 3-0 when Bland saved Jake Baxter’s volley well, and somehow the striker put the rebound wide.

West perked up when sub Arran Wearmouth came on, and he fired into the side netting, while another sub, Adam Burnicle, forced keeper Nick Jupp into his only serious save of the match.