THEY may not have lifted the trophy, but Bishop Auckland's battling Under-15s can be rightly proud of their achievements, declared the area's schools football chief.

Peter Malkin, chairman of the Bishop Auckland Schools Football Association, was paying tribute to the side which went down 2-0 on aggregate in the schoolboy equivalent of the FA Cup on Tuesday night.

A goal down against Portsmouth from the first leg held at Durham City, Bishops threw everything at their opponents in the decider at Premiership Pompey's Fratton Park.

However, a combination of inspired goalkeeping and stout defending thwarted their efforts and their hopes of snatching an equaliser were cruelly quashed in the second minute of injury time when the home side's Louis Bell scored a breakaway goal to send the vast majority among 2,000 or so fans into raptures.

The strike crushed the dreams of Bishops and their travelling faithful and meant that for the second time in five years they were forced to accept the role of bridesmaid and not bride.

When Portsmouth's goalkeeper Jack Stanbridge, later named man of the match, pulled off two stunning saves from Bishops' Wayne Clarke and Adam Comby in the space of a minute close to the end, it was clear it was not to be. Bell's goal moments later just served to rub salt in the wound.

Though many a tear was shed in the away dressing room afterwards, Malkin said the players, who will go their separate ways at the end of the season after three years together, should feel nothing but pride given their performance.

"This is the second time in five years that I have stood up here at the English Schools Trophy final - but of course it's the second time I have been on the losing side. But never mind, just to get there is fantastic," said Malkin, who had seen his side see off Middlesbrough, Scarborough, Barnsley, North Tyneside, West Tyne, Brierley Hill, Dudley and latterly favourites Liverpool before falling at the final hurdle.

"It's been a wonderful rollercoaster ride this year, as it was five years ago and as always with Bishop Auckland Schools football and I have been proud to have been chairman.

"The players have been fantastic over three seasons. We have only lost two competitive games in that time and both of those to Portsmouth. If you went into the dressing room afterwards you would have seen how disappointed they were. But that doesn't matter - it's part of growing up. You expect to win some and you expect to lose some."

Malkin said there would be players up and down the country, some plying their trade in the highest echelons of the English game, who would have envied Bishops' boys when they strode out onto the pitch.

"I think when you look back in the future you will have great memories," he told them at a presentation ceremony afterwards.

"There are thousands and thousands and thousands of lads who play schools football every day and how many of them would give their right arm to be in the final of the English Schools Trophy? They all would. Professional footballers who now play in the Premiership would have given their right arm to have played in the final of the English Schools Trophy. You have got there, you didn't win it, but by God you did us proud."

Malkin said he was equally proud of the way both sides had conducted themselves during what was a high-stakes encounter.

"There has been no nastiness, no backbiting, nothing," he said, something that could not be said for the semi-final with Liverpool who had apparently booked their hotels on the south coast prior to the match being played in the belief Bishops were a walkover.

"We beat them so it didn't matter to us," said Malkin with a wry smile before going on to heap praise on the finalists.

"Both legs were played with spirit, with aggression, with passion but above all in a very, very sportsmanlike manner," he concluded.