BRADFORD Town manager Paul Shanley says that he has never felt more dejected following a defeat than in the wake of his team’s FA Vase exit to Hartley Wintney last weekend.

Bradford made the trip east to Hampshire hoping to secure a plum quarter-final tie at home to non-league giants Hereford but their foray into the national stages was brought an end as they were beaten 3-1.

Elan Plummer’s early strike got Shanley’s men off to a dream start but Steve Duff levelled matters before a late second-half brace from Ross Cook killed off Bradford’s chances of progressing further.

But the Trowbridge Road boss was left cursing his luck and reckons that his team were denied a second goal by the officials before Hartley Wintney won the tie against the run of play.

“I’ve never felt as much disappointment after a game than I did on Saturday in all my time at Bradford, and I’ve been with the club for a while,” said Shanley.

“I felt for the players because I couldn’t fault their commitment at all, which I never expected to anyway, and the better team lost on the day.

“We started very well in the first 15 minutes and but for 30 minutes or so after that, we were poor and were lucky to go in at half-time with the score 1-1.

“But in the second half, we were much better and we totally dominated things. Their goalkeeper has made an absolutely outstanding save to keep out Neikell Plummer but we should have had another goal.

“One of their lads has headed the ball backwards from a corner and it was hard for me to see but people have told me that it was well over the line, but the linesman was out of position for whatever reason and he hasn’t given it.

“If we get that goal, we go on to win the game without a doubt because of how dominant we were.

"They probably had three attacks in the whole of the second half but they've scored from one of them and then got another one when we were pushing at the end."