ESSEX’S hopes of making a List A Final for the first time since 2008 were dashed when Glamorgan gained a five wicket victory at Sophia Gardens.

After the Eagles’ scintillating success over Yorkshire 48 hours earlier, there were realistic hopes that Tom Westley’s men could go all the way to the final and lift the 50-overs trophy for the first time in more than a decade.

But Essex were beaten in Wales, much to the disappointment of Westley whose side will end a season without a trophy for the first time in three years.

“It’s disappointing and never nice to lose a knock-out game,” said Westley.

“It was disappointing that we were not able to defend our total.

“Overall, the cricket we have played this season has been great and it’s a huge positive for us to reach a semi-final but again the disappointment is not being able to go that one step further.

“But I’m really proud of the guys in the changing room for their effort.”

The skipper did agree that by way of consolation, there have been crumbs of comfort not least the emergence of a number of seriously young talented cricketers.

“It’s not been all doom and gloom because I think it really has been a positive campaign,” said Westley.

“We’ve given debuts to a number of players and the way that they have played has been phenomenal.

“That’s a good sign for the club moving forward.

“That said, it is a professional sport at the end of the day and we want to win trophies but we’ve come up short so we need to reflect and review on that.

“So, there are a few learning points for the guys, we need to review what we can do differently.

“Hopefully what we’ve experienced in this campaign will make us better in the future.”

Feroze Khushi and Josh Rymell became the first batsmen since Dan Lawrence in 2015, to emerge through the Essex academy and post a century in any format for the county And Westley has been impressed by the youngsters’ displays in recent weeks.

“It’s a huge positive and the way both have played in the back-end of this campaign has been outstanding,” added Westley.