Heartbroken Shrewsbury Town boss Graham Turner today sifted through the wreckage of play-off despair to eye a sustained charge on promotion in 2012.

Town’s dreams of returning to League One after a 14-year absence were crushed at the Greenhous Meadow last night as Torquay sealed a 2-0 victory.

Turner and his squad were hit hard by the setback, but the Town boss has already turned one eye to next season.

“It will hurt over the weekend and it will hurt for some time,” said Turner.

“It just seems a whole season has gone to waste in two 90 minutes.

“But I’ve been in the game long enough to know nobody feels sorry for you.

“We have to get on with it and start planning for next season and getting the players in that we need to improve things and keeping the players we want to keep.”

Turner had few complaints over Torquay’s semi-final success, but insisted there were positives to take from his first campaign back in charge at Town.

“I think it is heartbreaking but looking back on the season as a whole — particularly with drafting in so many young players — we have to be relatively pleased with the improvement we have shown,” he reflected.

“It was probably a travesty we didn’t go up automatically but, over two legs, Torquay have deserved to go through.

“We weren’t good enough to break them down.

“Coming here with a two goal lead, they handled it well and caused us one or two problems.

“We never looked convincing on the ball and never looked like creating too much.

“We didn’t have enough craft, know-how, experience, confidence — whatever it was, we didn’t have enough to produce the opportunities.”

Turner will meet with his squad on Monday for a de-brief, where talks with out of contract players — including Jon Taylor, Craig Disley, David Raven and Kevin McIntyre — are sure to be on the agenda.