WEMBLEY proved one game too far for Mark Cooper’s Swindon Town on Sunday as they lost the League One play-off final 4-0 to Preston.

You can’t say the famous Lancashire side did not deserve their promotion to the Championship – the big stage was lit up by a man-of-the-match hat-trick from Jermaine Beckford and, of course, it was the club’s first victory in a play-off campaign at the 10th attempt.

Cooper had simply asked his young and tremendously talented side to do themselves justice in the final. It was not to be.

They have played some sublime football this season to take them to fourth in the table but, when it mattered most, they produced one of their more indifferent performances.

So despite three visits in six seasons, we Swindon fans are still waiting for our first goal at the new Wembley.

Here are five reasons where it went wrong on Sunday.

The gamble to play Nathan Thompson backfired

When captain Nathan Thompson limped around three sides of the County Ground pitch aided by two medical staff during the second leg of the semi final play-off against Sheffield United he looked to have no chance of making the Wembley final 13 days later.

The fitness tests he passed to take his place in the starting line-up were clearly not stringent enough. He lasted precisely two and a half minutes before breaking down with his hamstring problem again.

Thompson’s first tackle of the game inside the opening 90 seconds – directly in front of me in the stands – led to a foul conceded on Jermaine Beckford. Thompson clearly winced and felt his hamstring as he made his way back to defend the free kick.

As luck would have it the brilliant set-piece ball from Paul Gallagher landed at Beckford’s feet and against his incapacitated marker, Thompson, there was only going to be one winner.

As Preston celebrated their third-minute opener Thompson lay prostrate, face down on the Wembley turf, until being stretchered off.

Nathan was too brave for his own good. Managers have to make tough sometimes heartbreaking decisions and Thompson should have been in the stands. Playing him resulted in the early savage blow from which Swindon never recovered.

Avoidable defensive mistakes cost all four goals

We knew that Swindon Town’s defence was not watertight – quite how leaky caught us all by surprise.

The first two Preston set-pieces led to goals.

For the second goal, the ball came back in from a half-cleared corner. Michael Smith was deputed to mark Paul Huntington but made only a half-hearted attempt to pick up his man who had a tap-in from five yards.

You also have to question why Wes Foderingham did not come to claim the cross inside his six-yard area.

For the third goal, Jordan Turnbull was wrong-footed by Beckford’s deft cutback on the edge of the box and while our centre back tried to recover, the striker used the split second to pick his spot with a world class curling finish.

The game was already lost when Sam Ricketts was caught in possession, with Beckford going through one on one to complete his hat-trick before an hour had been played.

Simon Grayson won the tactical battle

The Preston’s boss’s decision to give John Walsh a man-marking role on Massimo Luongo was his masterstroke.

The bearded Walsh, who appeared to be playing inside Luongo’s shirt, did a marvellous job.

Swindon’s playmaker was starved of any meaningful ball and without him we were like an emphysema sufferer disconnected from their oxygen tank.

Grayson chose not to press Swindon in the opposition half, allowing Foderingham to advance almost to the halfway line on occasions before kicking. The open spaces of Wembley became a five-a-side pitch and with 10 white shirts back the lack of mobility from our all-too-similar starting strikers was cruelly exposed.

In contrast, Preston broke fast and direct with the long balls to Beckford and Garner making our defence look distinctly uneasy.

Michael Smith’s miss was the key moment of the game

Michael Smith had a glorious chance to redeem himself after his part in the second goal when getting his head on a fine Nathan Byrne cross in the 43rd minute.

He tried to be too precise and find the corner when any solid goal-bound contact would have seen the net bulge.

What compounded the miss was that 45 seconds later it was 3-0 when it should have been 2-1.

So many players knew they wouldn’t be playing for Swindon Town next year

Andy Williams came off the bench around the hour mark with what appeared to be a nosebleed.

I daydreamed about there having been a Ferguson-style tantrum from Cooper in the dressing room at half-time and that Williams had got in the way of a flying water bottle.

Sadly, the team came out as if nothing had been changed by the interval talk.

Within five minutes there was another sloppy piece of play which saw Beckford galloping clear again only to be stopped by a fine Foderingham save. In the 57th minute it was 4-0 for real after another blunder.

Right until the final whistle Preston defended their clean sheet as if their lives depended on it, and these players will form the bulk of the club’s Championship squad next season.

For months we have known that this Swindon Town squad is about to splinter and scatter and a number of players (the excellent Kasim and perhaps Byrne excepted) went through the motions.

Louis Thompson is going to Norwich but of the Wembley matchday squad, have we seen the last of Foderinghm, Turnbull, Stevens, Ricketts, Luongo, Kasim, Toffolo, Gladwin and Williams in a Swindon shirt?

Manager Cooper and owner Lee Power have to be congratulated on putting together a vibrant young side on a shoestring, one which stuck to its footballing guns to earn a fourth place finish that was beyond anyone’s expectations.

Now they must rebuild again – or risk becoming Leyton Orient, the 2014/15 yo-yo club.