FLACKWELL suffered cup final heartbreak when they lost 2-1 to Ryman League Division Two champions Ilford in the final of the Associate Members Cup.

The Heathens were just 20 seconds away from lifting the trophy when the Essex side snatched an injury-time leveller to force extra time.

Ilford then turned the overtime into one-way traffic, scoring their winner after just eight minutes of the extra half an hour.

Heath boss Andy Driscoll said: "The boys were gutted. They were 20 seconds away from being the champions.

"Hopefully with a couple of new players next year we will have the little bit of extra experience that we need to make the difference."

Driscoll described the final as being similar to Chelsea's Champions League semi-final against Liverpool with the difference being that his team could not hold out like the Koppites had done.

He said: "Ilford pushed five up front in the second half and had nothing to lose. We defended and defended until the final 20 seconds."

And he says he knew it was game over then, even though his team had 30 minutes of extra time and chance of a penalty shootout.

He said: "We started with some players who were not 100 per cent fit. The boys gave everything. They could not have pushed themselves any more.

"If we had taken it to a penalty shootout I know we would have lost because they were so knackered. Some of them couldn't even get changed afterwards."

It had looked like it was going to be a glory day for the Heathens when they took the lead in the 13th minute with a delicious volley from Ryan Newman.

Jason Bowler then went close to double Flackwell's lead, while Kevin Mealor was also denied and if they had taken their chances then it might have been a different story.

But at the other end, Heath were indebted to keeper Paul McCarthy before he was finally beaten right at the death by Chris Stevens.

And it was that man Stevens again who won the cup for the hosts when he nipped in between McCarthy and two defenders to nudge the ball home.