The result was in stark contrast to the jubilant scenes after the 3-1 victory against Stamford in the UniBond President’s Cup Final on Wednesday
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While the ending of Belper’s promotion aspirations was frustrating to all concerned with the club, the nature of the defeat at the Nanpantan Sports Ground was particularly annoying.

Belper had by far the better chances, controlled the game for long periods of time, yet still came away empty handed:

“To be honest we’ve only got ourselves to blame as we must have created six or seven clear-cut chances. We played better here today than we did when we beat them four-nil last year” surmised joint manager, Danny Hudson.

Unsurprisingly, after creating numerous chances and hitting the woodwork twice, Hudson could not “be too critical of anybody on that performance, there was not one player in that starting eleven who I thought was disappointing”, but for the second week in a row, Hudson singled out Jon Froggatt’s (pictured) performance, which “deserved a goal”, and the midfield play of Matt Telling and Tom Naylor.

“If we had have gone two-nil up, I think it would have been another four-nil, but they got a lucky goal when Richard Adams cleared it onto Nurse” argued Hudson “and that allowed Dynamo back into the game”.

Given the euphoria the club felt after their victory against Stamford, Hudson was asked if the victory had affected the preparation or performance against Loughborough, Hudson was clear:

“There was no hangover, we started the game well and got our goal and you look at the amount of saves their ‘keeper has had to make: he was probably man-of-the-match. We have probably not created that many chances in a game for a long time.”

As a play-off place is now impossible Belper have, according to Hudson, got to look after themselves and win their final league game that will leave them on 71 points, which is ten points worse off than last season’s total, but a fair reflection of “where we have been this season”.

After the game, Hudson argued that it was not the Loughborough match that has proved costly to the club, but numerous other poor performances throughout the season, with the away matches at Spalding and Brigg being the two most obvious.

In hindsight, Belper have not only been playing catch-up for much of the season but, over the last few weeks, have had to rely on other results to stand a chance of a top five finish.

While on their day, Belper can beat anybody in the league, they have not constantly put in the performances to deserve a play-off place.

Despite the obvious disappointment, there are several positives that can be taken from the season. In the short term, two cup finals is no mean achievement, while in the long term, Hudson is optimistic about the squad for next season.

“If we can keep the core of what we have got and keep the youngsters like Luke Fedorenko and Ollie Warren who are developing nicely. We are looking at adding three or four.

“I think we will be in a better position going into a new season that we were this season, as we had availability problems with Ben Walker, Krystof Kotylo and Mark Barnard for much of the season” Hudson explained.

Asked if two cup finals, yet no promotion could be called a success, Hudson argued that it depends how you define “success”, but:

“Andy and I think it is. In the three years we have been in charge, we will have had two Derbyshire Senior Cup finals, a President’s Cup win and a play-off final, and to me that is success”.

“But the expectation is we should be in play-offs every season” Hudson argued.

“It adds pressure to the team, but at least people have now got respect for Belper Town. We are now a big scalp for teams, which is great. I actually enjoy it because I think of how far the club has come and is developing. The future looks bright”.

Given the performance against Loughborough, Hudson was philosophical, “We are a good team, but we have not been consistent. Maybe it was not meant to be, this year”