FRANCIS Vines was left "extremely disappointed" after Basingstoke Town failed to win the Hampshire Cup.

He felt the narrow 1-0 defeat to Farnborough was harsh on his players, given the effort they put into Monday night's final at Bournemouth's Dean Court.

However, he acknowledged that the team's trait this season of making errors at the back returned to haunt them in the build-up to the 76th-minute winner from unmarked Farnborough striker Warren McBean.

McBean took advantage of slack marking to poke home from close range when team-mate Matt Pattison returned a weak punch from goalkeeper Stuart Searle, who Vines felt should have caught Ashley Sestanovich's free-kick.

"It all comes down to decision-making and making the right one which, sadly, Stuart didn't do when he made his punch," said the Town boss.

"But we also allowed him McBean to get free, so someone was not doing their job.

"When you look at it, we have lost three of my games in charge 1-0. While that is better than 5-0 defeats and shipping goals for fun, we are still making the mistakes that lose football matches."

When he was with Crawley, winning the Sussex county cup was Vines' first trophy, secured after only four months as a manager. And he was hoping he could do the same in Hampshire after only a month in charge of Basingstoke Town.

But he was more disappointed for his players, and revealed: "The dressing room was very quiet afterwards. The lads were up for the cup final and we were all desperate to win it.

"But perhaps when you're trying to get them to do things in a certain way, it detracts from elsewhere. We didn't get sufficient numbers forward because we were trying to stop them from scoring.

"I think that we frustrated Farnborough. I was happy with the effort put in. We had as many chances as them, possibly better ones, but didn't take them."

Nevertheless, the defeat reinforced Vines' belief that the squad needs a full overhaul this summer and he is already preparing for the influx of fresh talent.

"We did what we needed to do to - get safe in the league - but I am looking ahead to next season. The players know some will be told thanks and goodbye, and that there are a lot of players coming in this summer.

"There will be fantastic competition for places and we will see who is up for the fight."

First published: Thursday, April 27, 2006