Comrades duo take the positives from cup defeat to Hemel Town

Adiel Mannion in action for Berkhamsted against Leverstock Green earlier this season

Canham scored an excellent goal to bring Berkhamsted back into the game on Tuesday night, but it was not quite enough as Hemel held on for a 2-1 win to set up a cup final clash with Boreham Wood.

“I’ve never scored one like that before, and I probably won’t again either,” said Comrades captain Canham. “I’d like to think that we could have held on a bit longer in defence and I think we could have defended their two goals a bit better.

“But I think we played well, we had a few chances in the second half, and we gave them a good game. We did well.

“You can see the difference in standard; they keep the ball very well, they are a bit fitter than us and they have great movement in midfield and up front.

“But I think we kept our shape well and dealt with them pretty well. I’d like to think that they would say we gave them a good game.

“It was always a game we had nothing to lose in, really – we said that before the game. The gameplan was to try and frustrate them for as long as possible and maybe hit them on the break.

“We had a few chances and hit the post in the first half but obviously Jordan’s goal was a pretty good free-kick which I hear he does quite a lot.

Ed Canham scored a thunderbolt for Berkhamsted

“It’s frustrating, but I suppose it’s nice to know that they have to score a 20-yard screamer to score against you.

“There are certainly plenty of improvements from the last league game for us to take into this weekend’s match.”

Mannion, meanwhile, was a constant threat to the Hemel defence, and the young winger admits that he was disappointed not to have won the game.

“I thought that if there was a little bit more inside of us, we could have won it in the end or at least got a draw and taken it to extra-time,” he said. “It was a bit disappointing but I think that the lads played well.”

“Of course they are much better players than us, but I think our players dug deep and played really well.

“Obviously against bigger opposition you want to play well and you want to do well against them – you never know who might be watching.

“The performance will have given the lads a lot of confidence and we will look to progress now and do well for the rest of the season.”