A day after his team's shock 2-1 FA Cup semi-final loss to First Division minnows Hamilton Parish, Somerset Trojans coach Dennis Brown had still to come to grips with what transpired at Southampton Oval.

For the third straight year the perennial FA Cup giants stumbled at the penultimate hurdle, leaving the Somerset soccer community in a state of total disbelief.

And Brown was not in the least amused.

In fact, he admitted he was "totally disgusted".

"I'm very disappointed and frustrated and I had a very sleepless night last night (Sunday) just thinking about what could have happened," Brown lamented.

"We were in a position to make it happen but we didn't make it happen. And they (players) failed not only themselves but the whole Somerset community and they need to put that on their shoulders and come out this weekend and try to redeem themselves in some way because they failed a whole community."

Heading into the match the coach repeatedly stressed the importance of not taking their "older" opponents for granted. But Brown's instructions apparently fell on death ears.

"The mindset right from the beginning looking across Hamilton Parish to North Village was very, very dangerous," he said. "This was one of the things I put to them before the match . . . we can't go into the match being complacent. I stressed this to the players on numerous occasions that complacency would put us in trouble. And it did because we went out right from the beginning very lethargic, laid back and looking at their team as older players."

In the end, experience would prevail over youth as Parish went on to become the second First Division team to book an appearance in an FA Cup final in three years, following in the footsteps of Prospect in 2003.

"The older players prevailed because they had more enthusiasm and that's one thing I would like to congratulate them on because they wanted it more than us," said Brown. "Our guys figured they would just live on the history of Somerset being in a cup semi-final but that wasn't to be. They wanted it more than us and deserved the victory."

Brown noted how Trojans created chances but failed to capitalise on them. But it was his team's "poor" defensive performance which ultimately led to their demise.

"Even when we went up 1-0 we didn't put up the shutters and that's when we needed leadership at that time on the pitch to ensure everything remained organised and the players maintained a high level of concentration but that didn't happen," he said.

"I am very, very disappointed. We made two mistakes yesterday and defensively the two goals that were allowed were pathetic and totally unacceptable to me because my defence are the most experienced players in the team. To allow those two goals at that stage of the match is unacceptable to me. We defended poorly."

Trojans will now have to quickly pick up the pieces and refocus their attention to Sunday's crucial league match against PHC Zebras.

"We have three league matches left and they can either do two things . . . put their tails between their legs and feel sorry for themselves or come out this week to training and try to rectify things in our next match against PHC," Brown said.