Damon Lathrope felt immense pride after Watford’s narrow 3-2 defeat at the hands of Nottingham Forest in the FAWNL Cup final, praising his side’s mentality after the game with another important match on the horizon in the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division.

Taking the lead after two minutes through Gemma Davison, the Golden Girls faced an intense Forest side who struck back through Charlotte Greengrass in the first half before going ahead 10 minutes after the break, with Poppy Wilson equalising to take the game to extra-time.

Gianna Mitchell’s winner condemned Watford to heartbreak in the 115th minute, but Lathrope believed his side could reflect on the game positively.

“I’m disappointed for the girls because they deserved to win in my opinion,” said Lathrope, 34. “It was a very good game and a great showcase for this league, two very good teams both trying to win the game.

“Fair play to them, they came out and set up really aggressively to start with and then changed it up, which is a credit to our girls that we made them change shape, and it was a great game. It’s just a shame we haven’t come out on top.

“At the time that third goal went in I thought we were on top and we were looking like the team that was going to nick it if anyone. That’s the way football goes sometimes but I’m really proud of the group.”

Facing league leaders Oxford United on Thursday at Vicarage Road in a potentially season-defining clash, Lathrope has no doubts that his players will be keen to respond.

“They’ll be sore tonight,” added Lathrope, speaking after the final whistle. “They’ll be disappointed but we’ll go in on Tuesday, we’ll do our prep work and I will not have to motivate this group of players for that game.

“They’re already talking about it and we know if we produce what we know we can, we can beat anyone on our day.

“We’ll do the work we need to do to make sure we’re ready for Thursday and the players will be raring to go for sure.”