LEE Sinnott saluted his players and the hundreds of fans who made the trip to Essex after Altrincham's FA Cup adventure ended in heartbreak at Colchester's Community Stadium.

Roared on by a vociferous support who made it feel like a home game, Alty twice led a pulsating second-round tie, only to be pegged back each time and finally sunk by a goal in the fourth and final minute of added time.

"I want to place on record huge thanks from myself, all the staff and, of course, all the players for the support we had, the number of people who travelled, the effort and input from them, the noise levels, everything," said Alty boss Sinnott.

"Given the distance involved, the time they had to set off for a 2pm kick-off and the expense, it was quite exceptional, and every single one of them is a credit to Altrincham Football Club.

"They got behind the players and stuck by them to the very end. That level of vocal backing most certainly played a part in lifting the players and driving them on to a performance that so nearly took us over the line."

As he reflected on the way Alty cruelly missed out on a lucrative televised replay, Sinnott said: "Maybe mistakes cost us in the end, but I don't want to be critical, because there were plus points wherever you looked.

"Sam Heathcote coped superbly with the occasion for such a young lad. Look at the age of some of the players, Scott Leather as well as Sam, and they all did really well. You just couldn't fault any of the players. It was a bitter pill at the end, but they will have learned a hell of a lot from the experience of playing an FA Cup tie in that type of atmosphere.

"I thought Jake Moult and Simon Richman were superb in the middle of the park, and as a team, we pushed them a long way. We pushed them for 93 and a half minutes, in fact, and on another day, we could be saying Colchester are out of the cup."