Midfielder Simon Clist said Oxford United’s players felt devastated bec-ause they let themselves down in yesterday’s final match of the season.

And it was a horrible way for the season to end, after such a great run the team had put together.

“We’re very disappointed because for a team that wants to make the play-offs, we should be winning games like this,” Clist said.

“We didn’t play as freely as we have done in previous games at home.

“I don’t know whether it was nerves attached to that, not knowing what’s going to happen, and knowing we had to get the win.

“We had to put things like that aside, it was a must-win game, but we didn’t come through that.

“Hopefully we can learn a lesson from this game and next season we have to win games like this at home.

“We’ve been to places like Eastbourne this season and got results, and they’re tough places to go, so we’ve got those away performances, but we didn’t get this one.

“We didn’t perform, that’s the disappointing thing, we let ourselves down, and the fans.”

The second-half pitch invasion after James Constable had equalised disrupted the match, and Clist admits it didn’t help the team.

“It was difficult because we’d just got the goal back and there were people still coming on the pitch, so it was a bit disruptive.

“Obviously, we were pushing forward and they were catching us on the break.”

Overall, though, it’s been an amazing three months for Clist since he joined United on a three-year deal from Forest Green Rovers, and he says there is much that the players can take into the 2009-2010 campaign.

“It’s been fantastic since I’ve been here, we’ve had this winning mentality the last few months now, it’s a great feeling to have,” he said.

“We’re all on a downer today, but when we look back at what we’ve done the last few months we can be proud of that.

“And take that into next season, and build on it.

“We have a break now, but can look forward to next season.”

But Clist knows there will be some individuals who will not be around next season, with manager Chris Wilder likely to make announcements in the coming days on who he will let go.

“It’s going to be tough to say goodbye to certain individuals,” he admitted.

“The whole squad have been involved in this run and have contributed to this, and they can be proud of what has been achieved.”