RICHARD Wilkins remains confident that his Bury Town side can reach the FA Vase final for the first time.Bury could only manage a 1-1 draw at home against Hillingdon Borough in yesterday's first leg of the semi-final despite taking an early lead.

RICHARD Wilkins remains confident that his Bury Town side can reach the FA Vase final for the first time.

Bury could only manage a 1-1 draw at home against Hillingdon Borough in yesterday's first leg of the semi-final despite taking an early lead.

However, Wilkins believes his team are capable of winning the second tie next Sunday.

He said: “We have won four games away from home against very tough opposition in the Vase.

“I was hoping for us to get an advantage, but it was not to be.

“Nothing was going to be settled after the first match and there's still a lot of football to be played.

“If a team had been two ahead then that would have given them the impetus but this makes it nice and even.”

Wilkins was unhappy with his side's defending when they conceded a penalty and felt the Bury players did not perform to their capability after the break.

He added: “In the first half we were the better team and I was unhappy we conceded the goal.

“We gave the ball away and then it was a rash challenge for a penalty to get them back in the game.

“It looked a blatant penalty but we gifted them a goal and that's something you don't want to do in an FA Vase semi-final.

“We were also very disappointed with the second half performance as we did not get the ball down and we kept playing it too long - that's not us.

“I don't know why that happened, whether we were anxious but our passing became sloppy and the lads became tense.

“In the second half Hillingdon won more of the ball in midfield and caused us more problems so it was probably a fair result.”

Hillingdon boss Steve Ringrose refused to admit that his side were now the favourites to reach the final. He said: “It's still only half-time overall and Bury will come to our place but we know what we need to do.

“Anybody that has got to this stage has done well, but who remembers semi-final losers?

“There will be a big crowd next Sunday and I would not be surprised to see 2,000 people there.

“We did our homework on Bury but they are a good side and have some very good young players.”

Ringrose was unhappy that his side conceded the free-kick that McGavin scored from but praised the veteran striker's ability.

“If you are going to give free-kicks away, you shouldn't give them away to McGavin,” added Ringrose.

“We knew he would have a shot as he is very experienced and a quality player. But it's all set up for next week and both sides will go into it looking to win the game.”