They think it's all over.

[Sparky]

Well it is now, but that for me is not a negative comment, by any stretch of the imagination this has been a brilliant season and Mike Ford and the team have done us proud not only in gaining us promotion in the first place but getting us up to where we are now and nearly having a tilt at the play off's. As much as I would have liked us to progress I feel it would probably been a step to far at this point in the club's rise from the ashes but the foundations are now in place and we can now build further and go to greater heights.

[geoff]

Agree Steve

We were totally out muscled today by a very physically strong side. They restricted us to very few half chances, although did not create much themselves. The goal followed what in my opinion was a foul on Luke Carnell, but you would be hard pushed to argue that we deserved to win.

Yet again Zac ran his socks off, but they completely crowded him out. We must try everything to keep him. Unfortunately the play offs were a step too far.

Take nothing away from what has been a fantastic season, with heartfelt thanks to everyone involved, from the board to the management team to the players.

[redduke64]

Disappointing end,but too soon for promotion.
We are light up front,duku subbed after half hour,he'll be gone soon.
Zak and Jack the diamonds.
Who could watch Leamington every week?
Persistent fouls and breeden continues Leamington love affair with idiots between the posts.

[Fonzerelli]

Poor today no shot on goal until the 90th minute... Still 6th is a brilliant finish ... think we need a proven goal scorer at this level

[petet]

Leamington have got a way of playing and they do it very well indeed. Quick to crowd us out every time we got the ball. They didn't let us play our game. They get the ball forward very quickly and shoot on sight. They are strong and physical, and on the day they deserved their victory.
But what a season we have had !! First year back at this level and we were still in the mix in the final week of the season. Mike Ford has assembled a good team who play in an attractive way. We just need a proven thirty goals a season striker and we will be the finished article.
Things have never looked better off the pitch, what a fantastic job Ronnie and his board have done. We have at long last got a club to be proud of.
Great times at BUFC. WE ARE UNITED !!!!!!!!

[Sparky]

And don't forget we have finished higher than the likes of Weymouth,Dorchester and Kettering all formerly higher level sides.

[Steve T]

Ah. Weymouth. This it what one of their supporters wrote on their forum earlier in the season when it became clear that they weren't going to win the title by the end of February:

"I'm absolutely sick and tired of watching us play tin-pot teams in a tin-pot league. This was meant to be the season where we finally get back to where we ought to be and not playing in places run by a parish council and which have to be looked up on Google Maps."

Ha! Deal with it, matey. Some of us spent 10 seasons in the Hellenic League in pre-internet days, photocopying out-of-date Ordnance Survey maps in the public library in order to locate not just village but farmyard teams. Who remembers Wollen Sports?

The website photo of the supporters who went to Cinderford on the players' coach shows a certain age profile. Most of those will have endured the miseries of the 80s and 90s. There may be some who haven't yet shaken off the failing small-club mentality of that period and can't quite believe how well it's all going right now. Maybe they are still conditioned by it. Don't be.

It might be the case that Banbury are a season short of Step 2 capability but there's no reason why the club cannot rub shoulders with the likes of Altrincham, Boston, Chelmsford and Dartford. Twelve of the current 44 clubs have come through the SLP since 2004. Hemel and Hungerford are hardly giants of the non-league game.

A word of warning nevertheless. We know some clubs only survive there due to the beneficence of individuals. Others have simply overspent – Gosport won SL play-offs two years in a row but are now struggling amidst a financial crisis (despite a £150K windfall from their FA Trophy run to Wembley three years ago) and may be relegated. Leamington found it tough in their second season in Conference North but, sensibly, they didn't break the bank in order to stay up. At least we know we now have a board who appear to be able to temper ambition with realism.