BRIDGWATER Town manager Richard Fey said he was “proud of his players” after their FA Cup campaign was ended by Conference South side Basingstoke at Fairfax Park on Saturday.

The Robins were beaten 2-0 by their high-flying visitors, but had the chances to make life very uncomfortable for Basingstoke - but Fey was satisfied by his side's display and has urged them to carry their form into the league.

He said: “I was proud of each and every one of them. We knew it would be hard against a team high on confidence, third in Conference South and coming to us on the back of beating top of table Boreham Wood.

“We had a game plan and worked on it Tuesday and Thursday in the week to restrict them to making chances and try and hit them on counter attack and we did.

“They had a lot of the ball but didn't create much and stats show we had more shots on goal and created more chances than them.

“They scored two great goals from outside the box and the second in particular from 30 yards - but Daine, Tooze and Tom had great chances and if one went in it would have been a different game.

“Karim Rendell went over on his ankle last week and didn't train all week but wanted to strap it up and play so we brought him on with 35 minutes to go and tried to have a go at them with four forwards on the pitch in Karim, Daine Tom and Tooze - but it was hard to get out and we didn't see much of the ball.

“But having said that we had a spell in both halves where we just needed that goal. We finished the game with Ollie Chamberlain aged 19 and Harry Horton aged 17 in centre midfield - and it was great experience for our young lads. I just hope we can take the work rate and desire into our league form now and get back into the top half of the league.”