Huntingdon Town boss Jimmy Brattan wants to use Hinchingbrooke Cup final heartache as the fuel to fire a promotion challenge.

United Counties League Division One side Town were defeated but far from disgraced when going down 4-0 to Premier Division champions Yaxley in the showpiece clash at the Premier Plus Stadium, in St Neots, last night.

Brattan was proud of his players’ in reaching the final and also in the way they acquitted themselves on a night when claiming a third higher-level scalp in the competition – to follow up a quarter-final success against Ely City and a semi-final triumph at Deeping Rangers – proved beyond them.

Speaking at the end of his first season in charge of Town, Brattan said: “I’m delighted to have been able to take Huntingdon to a final.

“Very few people would have given us a chance to beat Ely or Deeping, but we pulled off those results and reached the final on merit.

“We’ll take plenty of confidence from what we’ve done in this competition and look to kick on next season.

“This season was always going to be tough, but we’ve succeeded in steadying the ship and now it’s about making progress again.

“We want promotion and we feel we can do it if we’re able to keep the squad together, make three-or-four quality additions and bring in a coach to work alongside me.”

Huntingdon fell behind just 13 minutes into the final to a Tom Waumsley strike. The same player doubled the Yaxley lead 10 minutes after half-time before Dan Cotton converted a penalty conceded by James Seymour.

Waumsley completed the scoring and his hat-trick to seal a controversial victory for Yaxley, who received a walkover into the final after inititally being unable to raise a team for their semi-final against Eynesbury.

A series of fine saves from Town goalkeeper Quincy Shorunmu prevented further damage. Substitute Antonio Dello Russo went closest to a Town consolation when denied by a smart save.

Brattan added: “Yaxley showed why they are Premier Division champions. They are a quality side and we couldn’t live with them.

“We really needed to score first, but the fact we were only 1-0 down at half-time meant we had hope, but we got over-run when having to make changes in the second half.

“We were two-or-three yards off the pace for most of the night and that is always going to show against a top side.”

The Hinchingbrooke Cup was again sponsored by Mick George this season.

Huntingdon Town: Quincy Shorunmu, Callum Walter, James Seymour, Jake Waterworth (sub Richard Baines), Liam Rodden, Jamie Waterworth (sub Ben Page), Christian Le, Ben Keating (sub Antonio Dello Russo), Jonny Hall, Chris Jones, Corey Kingston. Unused sub: Josh Watson.