Felixstowe & Walton United manager Stuart Boardley is today considering his future after his side narrowly missed out on a play off place.

Less than convincing defending gifted Heybridge Swifts' Sam Parkthe opportunity to net and the Essex side held on for a 1-0 win which secured them a top five finish.

With Grays winning by two against bottom club Hullbridge Sports that meant the Seasiders slipped to sixth and out of the play-offs in the Pitching Isthmian North division.

The disappointment was palpable among the majority of a second highest ever Seasiders' attendance of 806 spectators at the AGL Arena.

Stuart Boardley (right) considering his future (Picture: Nub News)

That was reflected by Boardley who could not hide his disappointment and told Nub News he was going to take a family holiday before deciding if he wanted to stay at the Seasiders and give it another go at achieving promotion.

The former Ipswich Town and Torquay United player, who had success as a manger at Leiston, knows he could always get another job in football, but will never get that family time back, especially with young children that he wanted spend time and watch them play football.

Boardley, popular among layers taff and supporters alike, took Felixstowe to the play-offs last season before losing out in the semifinals and this was another bitter pill to take.

He said: "I need to have think about what I'm going to do. It is incredibly hard managing at this level. Anyone will tell you it is time consuming, it is tough.

"When you come up short two seasons in a row it is tough to take and will take a while to get over.

"I have young family and I will sit down and talk with them about whether I come and give it another go.

"But whether I am here or not it will make no difference to this football club because It is built on good foundations. We have good players, we have good management team, good staff, supporters everything. So I know that whether I am here, or another manager is here, the club is strong."

Felixstowe never really got into their stride until the second half, had goal ruled out for a narrow offside and other chances went begging. leaving them finishing sixth in the table.

Boardley said: "We just came up short. They (Heybridge) scored more points than us throughout the course of the season and you can't argue with that.

"I felt four or five games ago we could really kick on and it was in our hands. The most dis-panting thing for me is we have allowed it to come down to one last game. It was almost like a cup game, 50/50 when anyone could come up trumps on the day.

"I can't criticise the players, we as a club, management team everyone have come up short together and I would not be saying anything different if we had got there. We would have get there and we lose together.

"It is something we can learn from over the summer, I can see where we need to improve and what we need to to kick on next year."

806 crowd for final match of seson (Picture: Stefan Peck)

Despite losing out Boardley hailed his players' character, and the backing from all those involved with the club.

He added: "This group will never throw the towel in and will always work as hard as they can for me.

"I'm proud we have created a squad that will always give their all. You can see that by the supporters, though we have come up short they are proud that the players have given."

Nor would Boardley point to anything else for falling short, including the number of games called off due to the weather, leaving them with a gruelling run in seeing them play three games a week.

"No excuses," said Boardley. "We had enough bodies out their to win games. We had chances in the second half to win this one, but our season is not defined by a few games."

*The Seasiders will be holding a Jordy Matthews Testimonial match on Saturday 13th May with a 3pm kick off. This will be followed by, Annual Awards 5.30pm-7pm, Race Night 7pm-9pm, Disco/Music 9pm-11pm.