Bowers & Pitsea’s Rob Small says he will find it hard to pick himself up following his side’s Isthmian North play-off defeat against Canvey Island.

The Gulls ran out 2-0 winners at the Len Salmon Stadium on Wednesday night to book a date with Haringey Borough on Sunday afternoon.

Sam Higgins and Ryan Charles got the goals for the visitors.

It brings an end to another memorable season for Bowers, who missed out on automatic promotion in the final week of the regulation campaign.

And Small says Bowers’ fragility from set-pieces has been costly in recent weeks.

“On the night we didn’t quite have enough and we have not had enough in the last couple of weeks,” said a disappointed Bowers manager.

“The last six goals we have conceded have come from set-pieces and we have been undone by two set-pieces in this game. We have not been opened up or outplayed.

“We put them under a hell of a lot of pressure at 1-0 and if we had made the most of that spell it could have been a different game.

“But we were hit with a sucker punch just before half-time and, in terms of how we defended it, we beat ourselves there.

“It’s a cruel game but we could have been out there all night and not scored a goal.

“It is hard to be positive right now but we came third in a competitive division. Little Bowers finished above a lot of sides that would have been expected to compete in the play-offs so we have to try and take comfort from that.

“I need a few weeks to get my head down and try and pick myself up.”

Much of the pre-match talk centred around Canvey’s decision to bring in Higgins and James White on dual-registration deals from East Thurrock United.

Although the Gulls did not break any rules when pre-registering the players in March, the move attracted widespread criticism on social media.

And Small said Bowers could not compete financially with Canvey.

“I don’t want to talk about the circumstances as I don’t want to hide behind anything,” said Small.

“The wider community were outraged by it but we accepted it and got on with it.

“I saw comments about clever management and forward thinking management but it’s nothing to do with that.

“We don’t have the resources to do that. They would have paid more for those two boys than we pay our whole squad in a week. It’s David versus Goliath and we came up short. That is football.”