Joe Widdowson was thankful for the “fantastic experience” of playing at Wembley, despite Leyton Orient coming out on the losing side in the FA Trophy final.

The left-back came close to firing in an equaliser for the O’s after they’d gone behind to Danny Rowe’s free-kick, but instead saw his effort bounce back off the post.

Orient hit the woodwork a further two times, signalling that it just wasn’t going to be their day, but Widdowson paid tribute to the fans for their support that pushed the side all the way.

He said: “For a lot of us it was our first time playing at Wembley today and it doesn’t come around often so it was a fantastic experience. The support from the Orient fans was unbelievable. It was an enjoyable game but an unfortunate result for us.

“We had so many supporters out there today cheering us on and I think they did have an effect on us in the second half. We had a few chances and we came close but we weren’t clinical enough today so I thought it was probably a fair outcome in the end for Fylde. It was a great free-kick in the end by [Danny] Rowe so well deserved.”

Having contested the National League play-offs recently and reaching the final at Wembley last week, Fylde have kept up their match sharpness, while Orient had to suffice with a friendly against Aston Villa under-23s, and Widdowson felt as though this had an effect on the game, particularly in the first half.

He said: “It’s hard to replicate that matchday intensity and we haven’t had that for the last three weeks. As much as you want to train as well as you can, you can’t replicate it.

“In the first half especially, we felt as though we weren’t really ourselves, we didn’t play great and it took us a while to grow into the game. I thought we were better in the second half, better around their box. We worked their keeper more and created more chances but we probably took too long to get going today unfortunately.”