AUSSIE-bound Brett Emerton spoke of his pride at captaining Blackburn Rovers in his 294th and last game for the club – but admits Saturday’s cruel loss to Everton took the gloss off a fitting finale.

The 32-year-old brought the curtain down on his eight-year Ewood love affair by donning the armband in the 1-0 loss.

But as he heads back Down Under to link up with new club FC Sydney, Emerton wished his time at Rovers could have ended on a winning note.

“The fans were outstanding. I couldn’t ask for anything more from them,” said Emerton “It’s been a fantastic eight years and, apart from the result, it was a fantastic way to end my career here. It was an honour to captain the team. It was a nice touch by the manager to enable me to do that, so I thank him for that.

“I felt very positive that we were going to get the result we wanted. We should have got the three points “Sometimes we won’t play half as well and get the points. That’s the way things go, but the most important thing is to stay positive.”

On an agonising day for Rovers, Junior Hoilett and Mauro Formica both missed penalties, and David Dunn and David Goodwillie struck the woodwork, before Mikel Arteta’s controversial injury-time spot-kick settled the game in Everton’s favour.

Emerton admits the dressing room was ‘devastated’ after crashing to an undeserved defeat, but remains hopeful after an encouraging display.

He said: “All the boys are absolutely gutted. We dominated the game, especially in the second-half, created so many chances and missed two penalties.

“It just didn’t go our way. That’s football. When you’re having a bad run, everything seems to go against you. I think this week there’s been some encouraging performances.

“It was a much better display from us in the second-half. We’ll take the positives from that, keep our heads up and I’m sure the points will come in the future.

“That’s the most disappointing thing, to play so well and have it snatched away in the last couple of minutes. It was devastating.”