GOATACRE captain Ed Wilkins is sure that his side will eventually be able to take comfort in the achievement of their stirring National Village Cup run but admits that the pain of yesterday’s semi-final defeat to Foxton is still raw.

Despite a heroic run-chase, inspired by Wilkins’ fine knock of 115 from 93 balls, the Goats’ efforts to reach 246 and a final at Lord’s fell an agonising five runs short in Cambridgeshire.

“It was a great game and a great achievement to take it to the last over but obviously, there’s a lot of emotion right now,” said Wilkins.

“I’m sure that things will sink in soon but at the moment, we’re just gutted to have come so close.

“We lost the toss and I thought it looked a good batting track, and it was. We knew they had a guy (Cei Sanderson) that had hit a few centuries in the last few games and you could tell that he was a good player.

“But we were superb in the last 10 overs of their innings and gave ourselves a chance by restricting them to 60 or 70.

“We switched our order around and I batted at three, with Dan Horton opening. Jack Haines is a destructive player but Jack and Dan didn’t really get the chance to strike it early on.

“I had some good partnerships with Toby Horton, who was superb, and George Rigali and we took it right to the end but it wasn’t enough.

“Congratulations to Foxton.”