Coach Andy Foley said Maidstone players were devastated after missing out on Twickenham again.

Maidstone fell at the Senior Vase semi-final stage for the second year running as Gloucester club Drybrook won 16-6 at The Mote last weekend.

Foley (pictured) told his London 3 South East champions they have still had a great season but there was no escaping the pain of losing a match they felt was there for the taking.

He said: "The players were devastated. They wanted to go the season unbeaten and reach Twickenham not just for themselves but for everybody at the club because the support has been brilliant.

"There were a lot of sad faces around but if you’d told us at the start of the season we’d win the league and reach the semi-finals of the Vase, we’d have been happy with that.

"It’s still been a great season and we can be exceptionally proud."

Maidstone go to bottom side Vigo tomorrow (Saturday) needing two more wins to finish with a 100% record in London 3 South East.

Foley, however, is already thinking about next season’s campaign in London 2 South East.

He said: "Part of doing well in London 2 is getting the infrastructure in place for London 1 which is semi-pro and a really good standard of rugby." I don’t want to raise expectations too much but we want to finish in the top half of the table and be knocking on the door for promotion. That’s reasonable."