The first grade mentor couldn't hide his disappointment after they were hammered by Tamworth FC 9-2 in their Northern Inland Premier Division semi-final.

On the back of three-straight wins and a one-goal loss in their last meeting, they had gone into the game with high hopes, but were simply never in it.

"We deserve nothing and we got nothing," Cygan said.

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"We knew we'd have to be at our best to compete and we were nowhere near our best."

Having said before the game that if they allow FC to score two goals they wouldn't win, the signs were ominous when Ryan Davidson got in behind the defence and put the defending premier league champions ahead after three minutes.

That quickly ballooned into 4-nil, and eventually 9-2 as first grade joined reserve grade in bowing out of the title race.

They had earlier gone down to Oxley Vale Attunga 1-nil in an extra-time thriller.

Involved in that game, Cygan was a bit miffed that he wasn't able to speak to the first grade side before their game.

From what he heard their warm-up "wasn't great" and that carried on to the field.

"We started too flat, and 4-nil down after 13 minutes there's no coming back from that," he said.

"We made it too hard for ourselves at the start and playing against a good strong team...."

FC did a lot of damage early through the middle with effective deep headers and good crosses.

Gunnedah in contrast wouldn't have had a shot on goal in the first 20 minutes.

Some dogged work from Rob Pryor did give them a golden opportunity about half an hour in with the striker earning a shot from the spot. But he missed it.

He did redeem himself a few minutes later, but any momentum they might have gained from that was quickly snuffed out with FC going straight up the other end and scoring to make it 5-1.

Ending far from how they would have liked, there were still a lot of positives to come from the season.

"We got to where we thought we should be," Cygan said.

"I'm not blown away by the fact that we only won six games out of 14 but we'll come back stronger next year."

Earlier in reserve grade they pushed the minor premiers all the way, and had their chances, Cygan said.

They had one late in regular time, and another in the final moments of extra-time, which would have made it 1-all. But it wasn't to be, Cygan conceding he missed a couple of good chances too.

In what was an energy sapping contest they were fortunate Amber Burton was able to play, which gave them a sub. But that was it, the 120 minutes taking a lot of of them.

Cygan said coach Atilla Yigman deserves a lot of credit for second grade's performance this season.

"He took over at game two and he's won nine of 13 since then," he said.