Leyton Orient were “as prepared as we could have been” for their FA Trophy final defeat against AFC Fylde, according to captain Jobi McAnuff.

The O’s were beaten 1-0 at Wembley having not played a competitive game for over three weeks, the last being the goalless draw against Braintree Town which clinched the National League title on the final day.

A friendly against Aston Villa under-23s was scheduled last Friday in an attempt to combat this, but Fylde’s journey through the National League play-offs all the way to last week’s final at the national stadium kept their match sharpness up to a higher degree than Orient.

McAnuff said: “[In terms of lack of sharpness], I wouldn’t just say in front of goal, but we’ve got to deal with it. It was a long lay-off and it’s not ideal, but it is what it is. We’ve worked hard and been training really well, putting in the hard work. We were as prepared as we could have been for the game.

“Probably that little bit of sharpness wasn’t quite there today and that’s probably, from our point of view, something that we can’t do a lot about.”

Fylde’s last visit to Wembley ended in defeat just last week when they missed out on joining Orient in League Two, losing 3-0 to Salford City.

McAnuff revealed that the aim was to pressurize the Coasters after their damaging defeat but paid credit to the way that they responded.

He said: “Our aim was to try and put them under a bit more pressure earlier on just to see how they were mentally because it’s a real tough place to come from, losing a play-off final. I give them massive credit for getting themselves going.

“If we’re going to choose one, we’re going to choose the league and they can have the cup, but we’d have liked to have both because that’s the kind of club we are now. We’re hungry for success. Every time we enter a competition, we want to win it and that’s got to be our mindset moving forward.”

The lack of a second trophy may hurt the players now, but promotion back to the Football League was always the main objective this season and that was achieved under McAnuff’s captaincy, but he was keen to heap praise on his teammates for their efforts throughout the campaign.

He said: “This is a great group to lead. They’re not hard work and we’ve got a real great group. It’s probably more about managing the younger ones. We’ve had some fantastic senior pros in there helping me out.

“Dean Brill, Charlie Lee, Alex Lawless are all real leaders in there and they provide a little bit of guidance at times for the younger lads and they’re great lads as well. They take the advice on board, they listen and improve.”