Chatham Town boss Kevin Hake didn’t need to overcomplicate the reasons his team were beaten in their play-off final on Monday.

Chats had the better of the first half and had numerous chances in the second but were beaten 3-0 at home by Enfield Town.

Report: Chatham 0-3 Enfield Town

Hake said: “The guys gave everything and in the end it came down to who took their chances, as you find in a lot of play-off games. We didn’t take our chances and they did.

“We performed well but there is no point saying how great we played or anything like that, they are the ones going up to Conference South and deservedly so, they took their chances.

“The boys came out of the blocks and I thought they played well, particularly first half and we dominated, but when they were presented with a chance they took it and we didn’t. That’s football and if you can’t take the lows you can’t take the highs.”

Chats had finished second in the Isthmian Premier table which ensured they had home advantage against Enfield. They went into the game well-fancied to claim a third successive promotion.

Hake said: “We have had a really good opportunity to go up in our first season (in the Isthmian Premier), but hopefully the team will learn from that as a squad and look at it and say, ‘what can we do differently?’

“There was nothing we could have done off the field anymore, we prepped and we knew exactly how they were going to play, they did exactly the same against Wingate & Finchley (in their play-off semi-final). They didn’t play particularly well first half but came out of the blocks second half and won the game there.

“The third goal from our point of view came where we were chasing the game, which is fair enough, it is football really.

“We had a real chance to make some history but the reality is you are always going to have seasons where things don’t necessarily go for you. We have won a cup and finished second, did we want to go up, were we good enough to go up? Yes, I believe we were.

“We could have run (champions) Hornchurch closer than we did but to get to a play-off final, at your home ground, you want to do your best.

“I have asked a lot of those boys, they played a lot of games, we played on Wednesday for 120 minutes (beating Horsham in the semi-final) and they came through that brilliantly, which is remarkable in such a short space of time.

“I always look forward, I don’t really look back. The hard work starts again.

“We have had a good rate of rise and now we have to dust ourselves down and go again.”