Side-lined Eccleshill United head coach Lee Duxbury watches the penalty shootout which Knaresborough Town won 4-2 to win the Toolstation NCEL League Cup final
Match Photos are HERE
Head coach Lee Duxbury urged his Eccleshill United players to look at the bigger picture after the Toolstation NCEL League Cup final penalty shootout defeat to Knaresborough Town yesterday.
Eccleshill drew 2-2 after extra time with Knaresborough, but lost 4-2 on spot kicks which denied them the double.
Eccleshill pulled off one of the greatest West Yorkshire Non-League cup shock results in recent memory by beating Harrogate Town to win the West Riding County Cup last month.
Duxbury also led Eccleshill to fourth in the Division One table and he said: “I just said to the lads, basically, yes be disappointed because you lost on penalties in a final, but learn from it.
“World class players miss penalties so there’s nothing to be ashamed of. I just said don’t be disappointed at the season just because we lost the last match of the season.
“Just see what we have achieved. We have been in two cup finals and we won one which is of a higher standard than the League Cup.
“We lost that on penalties and we finished fourth in the league. We’re in the FA Vase and Cup next season we can be proud of ourselves that we achieved that this year instead of losing the last game.”
Former Bradford City midfielder Duxbury has led a remarkable upturn in fortunes for the Bradford-based club.
Since the club went into partnership with RIASA over four years ago, Ian Banks and most recently Bobby Davison struggled to get results out of the team, mostly made up of American players.
Duxbury joined RIASA and Eccleshill last summer after leaving his post as Oldham Athletic reserve team manager and he claims he was always confident of achieving success at the Rapid Solicitors Stadium.
“I’ve instilled a belief and a will to win and togetherness with the American and English boys,” he said.
“Just a formula that makes us play football and able us to change formations when we’re chasing a game. The season hasn’t defied my expectations because we had a group of players which I believed could do something this season.
“We added a few so I knew we could be successful.”
Duxbury was lucky to make the League Cup final yesterday. He had a hip operation on Friday and only left hospital at 11pm that night.
He then defied his wife’s wishes to attend the game. He remained seated for the whole final and watched on as Weston Murau pulled off a string of superb saves.
On the game, Duxbury added: “It (the game) was up and down, but who was man of the match?
“Their goalkeeper was so that tells the story. The lads have had a long hard season and they looked jaded, but their game-plan was to pressurise us.
“Basically we drew our last game 2-2, obviously we lost on penalties.”