Dave Anderson said he could not ask any more from his players after AFC Wimbledon slumped to an agonising play-off semi-final defeat to Bromley.

The Dons promotion dream is over for yet another season after a solitary Nic McDonnell goal in the 54th minute condemned the Kingsmeadow side to a 1-0 defeat in game that also saw Wes Daly sent off after 34 minutes for two bookable offences and assistant boss Jon Turner sent to the stands.

The result means that the Dons will be forced to play another season in the Ryman Premier Division after missing out on a place in the Conference South via the play-off's for the second season in row after crashing out at the same stage against Fisher Athletic last season.

And after the defeat Dave Anderson says his players gave him everything over the tense 90 minutes.

He said: "You can only ask your players to give you everything they've got and I thought they did that. When the game was 11 versus 11, I thought we bossed it and had all the chances.

"But when Wes got sent off I knew we had a mountain to climb and I thought my players did everything but put the flag in at the top of the mountain."

Anderson insisted that despite the disappointing result he is still proud of his side's fighting spirit.

"I've always been proud to be the manager of this club and I've always been proud of my players. We've had our ups and downs like every team has but we are three years down the line and I think the side that we've got has progressed every month of every season.

"We've come within a whisker of getting into the play-off final."

And it was the Dons who had the better of the opening exchanges with Richard Jolly and Roscoe Dsane both squandering great opportunities to give the Dons the lead - though Anderson's men were lucky not to concede on 29 minutes after Andy Little made a fantastic save to deny Tony Boot from 10 yards out.

But the Dons suffered a fatal blow on 34 minutes when Daly, who had been booked just eight minutes earlier for a challenge on Mark Corneille, was shown his second yellow card for pulling back Boot in the centre circle right in front of the referee.

The sending off lifted the home side and Dons keeper Little was forced into a good save from Junior Kadi's header after 37 minutes, but was relieved to see a Boot effort fly over the bar from 10 yards when it would have been easier to score.

And Bromley were nearly made to pay for Boot's missed opportunity when strong running down the left by Steve Ferguson resulted in him have a clear sight of goal in the box but his angled chip went into the side netting on the stroke of half time.

The final nail in the Dons' coffin was hammered in 10 minutes after the restart when Nic McDonnell rose above Paul Lorraine to nod home Steve Wood's pin point cross to give Bromley the lead.

Some desperate defending from the Dons kept the score down to 1-0 and they were nearly rewarded with the final kick of the game when some confusion in the Bromley box saw Jolly presented with an open goal - but the striker could only place his shot agonisingly inches over the bar to end the Dons' promotion hopes.