Joe Jacobson said his potentially matchwinning strike at Wembley means nothing to him now after suffering the heartbreak of a play off final defeat.

The Welsh full back was seconds away from being the toast of all Wanderers fans as his free kick had seemingly put Blues on course for a return to League One after a three year absence.

Five minutes into extra time his kick from just outside the area had entered the net via the crossbar and the back of despairing Southend keeper Dan Bentley, who was in mid air trying to keep it out.

But it was Bentley who had the final say, firstly seeing team mate Joe Pigott level for the Shrimpers with barely any time left on the clock before keeping out two Wanderers spot kicks in the penalty shoot-out.

Jacobson had been on for the greatest of highs that only a winning goal at the home of football can bring – instead he, like the rest of the Wanderers team and their hordes of travelling fans, was left to reflect ruefully on what might have been.

He said: “It’s what dreams are made of – scoring the winning goal at Wembley would have been awesome, but that’s gone now. It doesn’t mean anything anymore. To lose a game here is heartbreaking. It hurts a lot.

“We’re 30 seconds away from one of the best days of my life – it’s just heartbreaking.

“If you play for 90 minutes and get beaten 2-or-3-0, fine – [you can say] you didn’t deserve it, but to play 120 minutes and given everything we’ve given, to lose on penalties then is heartbreaking. I have never felt anything like it on a football pitch before.

“We’ve been on such a high most of the season, to miss out on the last day was horrible but this is the worst thing that could probably happen in football.”

Jacobson said having been so close to going up automatically made this result all the more difficult for Blues to swallow.

He said: “To miss out on automatic is horrible, but then you’ve got the back up of the play offs. In the two Plymouth games we were unbelievable and deserved to be in the final.

“Up until the last kick of the game we maybe deserved to win it. It’s hard to determine what’s gone on, but we’ve had a great season. We have to replicate the season just gone now and see where that takes us. We’ve seen today every one of us has put a shift in – no one’s been shy out there.

“Whenever we’ve been in front, most of the time we’ve kept it and defended really well throughout. It’s taken them 120 minutes, or whatever, to score a goal against us.

“Fair play to Southend, they kept asking questions and finally something broke for them. The guy had the composure to put it away.”