MANAGER Paul Collicutt says there are plenty of positives to take from Evesham United’s season, despite their Evo-Stik Southern League Division One South and West play-off semifinal defeat.

After finishing second in the league on 91 points, the Robins saw their promotion dream shattered with a 3-0 defeat to Larkhall Athletic at the Jubilee Stadium, with all three goals, including a sixth-minute penalty, coming in the first half.

Collicutt admits the disappointment will take a while to get over, but takes great pride from leading Evesham to second after finishing the season with 10 straight victories.

He said: “It’s going to take a while for it to sink in, but there are a lot of positives to come out of the season and we can’t forget that.

“I wouldn’t have believed this would happen last year, so hopefully it shows the club is on the right road and long may that continue.

“To finish second in the table and not go up is when the playoffs are hard to stomach. Finishing with 91 points would have won us a lot of other leagues.”

Larkhall, who will face Stratford Town in the play-off final, never looked back after scoring three times in a one-sided firsthalf.

It started to go wrong when Linden Dovey clipped the heels of Tyler Sibbick and Larkhall’s top scorer got up to fire the visitors ahead from the penalty spot.

Moments later, keeper Kevin Sawyer prevented Sibbick from scoring again when he made a terrific point-blank save to deny the 26-goal striker.

Larkhall increased their lead in the 35th minute, Sawyer making a terrific stop from Joe Tumelty, but Robert Hobbs followed up to bury the rebound.

The game was as good as over for United five minutes before the break when Dean Griffiths fired in number three past Sawyer after good work by Matt Thorne.

There was still time before the interval for Sawyer to produce another breathtaking save to thwart Sibbick.

Collitcutt added: “It was a dubious penalty decision and that knocked the stuffing out of us.

They played well in the first half, we kept going and showed a bit more in the second, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

Evesham United: Sawyer, Jackson, Stanley, Harding (Wood 57), Sysum, Dovey, Lance Smith, Wilson (Knowles 76), Edenborough, Mann, Lee Smith (Washbourne 45). Subs not used: Stack, Wallon. Attendance: 686.