THEY dug the tunnel, somehow managed to crawl through and see the light at the other end, but just like Steve McQueen and co, Bracknell Town never quite managed to pull off the great escape.

Instead their season ended in a familiar fashion - defeat.

A 5-3 defeat at Reading Town that, coupled with Fairford Town's shock win at Ardley United, left Robins with no more escape routes.

Heroic their end-of-season efforts might have been, but ultimately they left it too late, and will finish bottom of the Hellenic Premier Division this season.

Whether or not they are relegated to Division One East could still depend on reprieves and other clubs' movements, but the feeling at Scours Lane at the final whistle was one of devastation, not optimism, as it had been during the week.

Darrell Freeland, Bracknell's club secretary, admitted that he was close to tears in the aftermath of the defeat, and said the club are bracing themselves for the drop.

"There are talks of reprieves and clubs pulling out, but we have to go with the facts, and they are that over the course of the season we have not been good enough, we have come up short," he told the News.

"And we're devastated to be honest. We've worked so hard, but we gave ourselves far too much work to do. Before today we had picked up seven points from nine and it looked like we might pull off the great escape but it wasn't to be.

"A couple of sloppy goals after half time put us behind and from there we were always chasing, it was disappointing." Freeland's views were echoed by joint-manager Steve McClurg, who said he could not yet face the thought of relegation.

"I'm gutted. We've brought on some good young players throughout the year and got some in, but we've lacked experience and it's probably cost us at the end," he commented.

"Everybody has worked hard, and there's nothing else you can do. It's been a long season." And yet Bracknell's season can clearly be split into two halves, the first of which left them with a mountain to climb after Christmas.

With just two wins from their first 22 opening matches, it took the arrival of coach Mick Woodham and a host of talented youngsters from Windsor to spark a semi-revival.

But even that wasn't enough in the end, and the future of Woodham, along with the rest of the management team and players, is in doubt.

"We'll have to sit down as a committee with the management team and decide what we are going to do for next season," explained Freeland.

"It's going to affect us financially because our football costs will be pretty much the same but we are likely to have less revenue coming in, but we are a resilient group, there aren't many of us involved but we all work very hard to keep the club afloat. We'll keep fighting and going, wherever we are next year we'll do our best and whatever will be will be.

"If we do go down and can keep this group of players together we should have a great chance of winning Division One East and bouncing straight back up."