Reaction from Stamford AFC manager Graham Drury after his side are beaten by Stockport County in the FA Cup
It's not often the case in football where the defeated side takes the lion's share of the plaudits.
But Stamford returned home from Saturday's FA Cup trip to National League big guns Stockport County with their pride firmly intact and their reputation enhanced.
A rousing ovation from the home fans as they left the superb Edgeley Park surface - which was followed by a flurry of complementary social media posts from the County followers - highlighted how well Stamford had performed in the fourth qualifying round tie.
Their superb and vociferous travelling support that helped swell the crowd to more than 3,000 were right behind their team from the start and also appreciated the excellent efforts of their side on the final whistle.
The game had ended in a 3-0 defeat for Graham Drury's side who had been the only team left in the competition that had started at the extra preliminary round stage.
And, despite missing out on the chance to equal their best-ever run in the FA cup by reaching the first round proper, Drury had nothing but praise for his charges.
Their game-plan had kept them in the contest for more than two-thirds of the match before they had to go for broke where Stockport's undoubted quality shone through.
Drury said: "We had only worked on our shape once on Thursday in training and it worked a treat so I am really proud of my players for executing it as well as they did.
"Their first goal did put us on the back foot, but I thought that for the first half we stuck to our game-plan and we went in at half-time with as much possession and chances.
"It was always a case of how long did we go before we took the gamble.
"If you don't care about the game, you walk away from here thinking it had been a gallant effort and we'd had a real go at it.
"But, when you do care about it, then you can't help but look back in hindsight and think, should I have waited five more minutes before I made the changes?"
"We agreed that after 60 minutes we needed to have more of a threat going forward and I thought we put a couple of nice balls across the box and Cameron Johnson came on and bent one just wide.
"You are always going to be very open though when you're trying to push for a goal but in the FA Cup you might as well lose 10-0 than 1-0 because the outcome is still the same.
"We haven't worked the keeper enough and we can't blind ourselves by thinking we've done enough to win a game of football.
"We have done well enough though to compete with a side three steps above us."
The Hatters had recently paid a five-figure fee to sign attacking winger Ollie Crankshaw from League Two side Bradford City.
The transfer fee outweighed what Stamford have made financially throughout their FA Cup run and it was Crankshaw who crafted the opening for the first goal that was finished smartly by Ryan Croasdale in the first period.
A contentious call to then penalise Stamford goalkeeper Dan Wallis for a push in the box which Drury felt was 'very harsh' allowed the prolific Paddy Madden to double the lead from the spot with 18 minutes remaining.
Scott Quigley then sealed their success in the 82nd minute as Wallis produced some superb saves in the latter stages to prevent Stockport from increasing a scoreline that the Daniels didn't deserve to be on the receiving end of.
Drury added: "I thought the penalty was very harsh and the fourth official agreed with me.
"Dan's eyes were constantly on the ball and he had a right to go for it. I think their player has clattered into him and I was expecting it to go the other way if I'm honest.
"They had 2,000 fans behind the goal calling for a penalty though and that's when it doesn't go the way of the minnows.
"It was a real body blow because it was the one that killed the game and the FA Cup dream."
Stamford will now turn their attention back to pushing for honours in the Northern Premier League Midlands Division when they travel to Shepshed Dynamo on Saturday.
MATCH REPORT: STOCKPORT COUNTY 3 STAMFORD AFC 0
