Mark Peters believes Cambridge United's players will be stronger next season for the experience of losing Sunday's Play-off Final at Wembley.

"It's a major disappointment, especially because of the support we brought here, which was fantastic," said the 35-year-old. "We gave it our best in the second half but we just couldn't seem to break them down.

"In the first half we let them have the ball a bit too much," he added, "and it's easy in hindsight, but that may have given them a bit more confidence on the ball whereas we looked a bit shaky and didn't keep the ball well enough in the first half.

"When they came out for the second half they knew if they kept it out of their penalty area they were nearly there."

Peters went closest to equalising for United when Exeter goalkeeper Paul Jones fumbled a 74th minute cross and dropped the ball at the United defender's feet, but his close-range shot was blocked on the line by defender Matt Taylor.

"It came to me really quickly and there was no time so it was just my reaction to get it on target," recalled the United player-coach. "That was my main thought and the lad did well to get it off the line. Again, it was so near but so far."

Looking beyond the aftermath of the defeat and ahead to next season, he concluded, "All I can say to the lads is I've been here before and you come back stronger because you've been through this, and you realise what you've got to do to get promoted straight up rather than going through this process.

"We haven't performed today but you've got to take the positives out of the season. We've done fantastically well to finish second and next year we'll be a little bit stronger, so let's get our heads up and get on with it."

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