HINCKLEY United manager Dean Thomas has paid tribute to the army of over 500 supporters who made the trip to Rushden and Diamonds but looked on as their team's FA Cup journey came to an end.

A 3-1 defeat by the Blue Square Premier side saw Adam Webster on target to equalise and for a minute the town's supporters were in heaven.

But Aaron O'Connor scored his second of the game almost straight after the restart and in the end a third went in as the Knitters tired.

But despite the defeat, Thomas remained upbeat and the fans were high on his priority list after the game

"The fans were absolutely brilliant, they made an awful lot of noise and I thank them for their support and hopefully they will stay behind us for the remainder of the season," he said.  

"For the first half an hour we competed well and got amongst them, we had a couple of half chances in the first half before they scored, so the opportunities were there, but we knew that if we made mistakes, we'd be punished and that's what happened - they made the most of their chances.

"The first goal deflated us, but we re-grouped at half-time and tried to take the game to them without creating any clear cut chances until the goal - a wonderful cross from Alex Taylor and a great header from Webby which gave us a lift. We were still celebrating when they scored again though - we conceded possession cheaply, Connor's mis-judged the through ball and before you know it we're back to chasing the game again."

The Knitters boss added: "I learnt about not celebrating goals too much at an early age. My manager at Northampton Graham Carr (who was watching the game today) gave me an almighty rollicking as a youngster for celebrating too much and costing us.

"Maybe I'm a bit old-fashioned when it comes to that, but it was a significant part of the game and I thought their second goal was avoidable.

"I don't want to criticise the players though, we're having a good season and these lads know what it takes to play at Conference Premier level now and there's no reason why some of these lads can't make the step up."

Andy Gibbs match report here