DARRYL Eales admitted defeat in yesterday’s Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley was hard to take.

The U’s went into the match against Coventry City as warm favourites, with the rivals propping up the Sky Bet League One table.

But Michael Appleton’s side could not find their usual fluidity and fell behind to an early Gael Bigirimana strike, before George Thomas doubled the lead ten minutes after the break.

Liam Sercombe gave United hope 15 minutes from time, but they could not force an equaliser.

For the Oxford United chairman, it was a case of what might have been, coming 12 months after a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Barnsley.

“It’s hard to put into words how I’m feeling,” he said.

“You know you are going to experience highs and lows in sport.

“The highs are amazing and the lows are pretty damn low.

“I think it’s just a missed opportunity.

“The team usually rise to the big occasions, so I am very disappointed for Michael and the staff because one thing we talk about is if you put the performance in, you usually get the result.

“It almost looked as if we were playing in slow motion at times.

“I don’t know whether the occasion got to the players, but I wouldn’t have thought so.

“A lot of those players will be very disappointed they did not do themselves justice either individually or as a unit.”

Eales says the feeling of losing at Wembley was far greater than in 2016, when they came into the match as underdogs.

“This is a different order of magnitude of disappointment,” he said.

“We cannot lose perspective because at the end of the day it is just a game. But that’s hard to accept right now.

“We now have six – or maybe nine –games left and we want to finish on a high.

“The support was absolutely fantastic and I just want to express our disappointment that we could not bring the trophy home for them.”

When asked whether 2018 could be third time lucky, the U’s chief joked: “Let’s hope we can’t play in this competition next season.”

United managing director Greig Box Turnbull added: “To sell 30,000 tickets again is phenomenal.

“After coming here with so much pride last season, this year we wanted to go back to Oxford with the trophy to reward the efforts of everyone connected with the football club.

“The main feeling is that the players did not do themselves justice there.

“Michael said in the dressing room we have still got an outside chance of the play-offs and we have to use that disappointment to finish the season on a high.”

He added: “The fans were absolutely superb, as always.

“The backing was first class and shows just how much support there is for Oxford United.

“We will bounce back.

“The fans are the heart beat of the club and I was so proud of the sea of yellow and blue.”