Even the Southend United players thought they were beaten as the clocked ticked down on the League Two play-off final with Wanderers leading at Wembley, according to Marcus Bean.

A Joe Jacobson free-kick, which found its way over the line after striking Shrimpers ‘keeper Daniel Bentley on the back, looked to have secured a return to League One for Blues.

The Wycombe fans stood in the East end of the national stadium counting down the seconds until the final whistle as Joe Pigott located the bottom corner in the final minute of injury time to take the game to penalties.

“I thought that there wasn’t much in it but I thought we edged it, definitely,” said Bean.

“They’d run out of ideas and a few of their players were saying themselves that they felt the game was over. Fair play to them, it takes a lot of balls to come back in that situation.”

Saturday was Bean’s second taste of defeat at Wembley on his second outing there and served as another dose of pain following Brentford’s 1-0 defeat to Carlisle in the 2011 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy final.

The 31-year-old came on at half-time in that match but he played the duration of the play-off final before stepping up to bury his spot kick in the ultimately heartbreaking shoot-out defeat.

Bean has been used at right-back by Gareth Ainsworth after Sido Jombati suffered a season ending foot injury and he felt the defence had laid the foundations for Blues to win the game in extra-time.

He said: “It started off tight but I thought it opened up a bit and there were opportunities to score as the game went on.

“A couple of times we lacked that little bit of composure with the final pass but so did they. I thought we’d done enough to win it, if I’m honest, in the 120 minutes, but it wasn’t to be.

“It’s a massive achievement [to reach the play-off final] but I’ve been here (Wembley) twice now and lost on both occasions and you don’t enjoy the day unless you and that’s my personal opinion.

“There’s immense pride that we’ve got here with such a small squad. They’re a good bunch of lads as well and I’ve enjoyed every minute of my time here.”

A feeling of “pain” was the former QPR player’s overriding emotion as he stood talking to the press in the mixed zone at Wembley, but he did his level best to push his feelings to one side as he tried to put the season into perspective.

Bean has only been part of the squad since January but it was plain to see that he took the defeat just as hard as anyone in the dressing room.

His relationship with Gareth Ainsworth, which dates back to their days together at the R’s, was one of the key factors in his decision to sign for the Chairboys, and, with a year to run on the deal he signed four months ago, Bean is keen to help the club and its manager push on next season.

“He’s (Ainsworth) so proud of us and he just said ‘listen, this season we’ve exceeded all expectations and we go again next season’,” said the No8.

“The overriding feeling coming out of the dressing room was that we’ll go again next season, pick our heads up and crack on.

“I’ve got tremendous respect for Gaz from his playing days and I just want to try and progress his coaching career as that’s something I want to go into. I will do all I can to make sure he goes onto the next level.”