Stand-in skipper Craig Disley has urged Shrewsbury Town to turn FA Cup heartbreak into promotion elation after declaring: “We can be proud of our performance.”

Town came within a whisker of securing what would have been an intriguing replay against League One big guns Southampton as they held firm at St Mary’s for 90 minutes on Saturday.

But injury time goals from David Connolly and Adam Lallana provided a crushing end to Town’s dreams and gave Southampton a second round home tie against Cheltenham.

And Disley today urged his team-mates to take heart from their display in what was Shrewsbury’s fifth successive first round exit in the competition.

“The gaffer (Graham Turner) said after the game if we work as hard as we did on Saturday, we will go a long way this year and all the lads believe that,” said Disley, who was again deputising as captain for the injured Ian Sharps.

“If we start implementing our football on top of the work ethic, there is only one way we can go and that’s up.

“We set our stall out to frustrate Southampton and it worked well until the last two minutes.

“To lose the goals so late on was a killer because we had frustrated them and limited their chances.

“We can be proud of the performance but it just wasn’t to be.”

Turner was today attempting to lift his troops after Saturday’s disappointment.

“It’s heartbreaking for a weekend,” admitted the Town boss.

“But then you have to be philosophical about things and get back to work with a view to going to Stevenage next Saturday and getting right result.

“We have said all along that promotion is the aim but it would have been nice to go hand-in-hand with an FA Cup run.

“That hasn’t happened but if we apply ourselves as well as that, we should be okay for the rest of the season.”

By JAMES GARRISON