WING wizard Rory Prendergast believes Accrington Stanley's FA Cup run has helped to lay the foundations for a promising future.

The 24-year-old was gutted after the Reds cup dream ended with their 2-1 FA Cup third round replay defeat at Colchester United.

But he is proud of the way the team has consistently battled against Football League opposition during their cup run, and is confident they can only go from strength to strength if they achieve their ambitions of becoming a full-time outfit next season.

"We deserved our goal and I think if it had been 1-1 we would have gone on to win from there," said Prendergast, who had a first half chance ruled out for offside.

"We absolutely played out of our skins at Colchester but rued our missed chances in the end.

"I don't think there was anything wrong with my goal but I did hear the whistle before I hit it. But I told Paul Mullin I wasn't offside when he played the ball."

He added: "We've still got to get confirmation about whether we will go full time next season.

"If we do, I think we'll get a lot fitter and our ball control will be better because you work with footballs every day.

"At the moment we only train twice a week and don't always work with footballs because we go to the gym.

"We've held our own this season but if we do go full time then I believe we can go one step further."