BRYAN HUGHES is set to announce his retained list this week.

The Wrexham boss is preparing for a 12th season in non-league after his side were beaten 1-0 by Eastleigh in Thursday's play-off eliminator at The Racecourse.

Only seven players - Christian Dibble, Shaun Pearson, Jake Lawlor, Akil Wright, Luke Young, Mike Fondop and Jason Oswell - are under contract for the 2019-20 campaign and Hughes will be letting other members of his squad know if they are part of his plans for the future.

"I will be looking to do that sometime this week," said Hughes. "They are hurting now and that will carry on for a while.

"I will be in contact with all the players who are out of contract, sit down and start planning our team for next season.

"We will put a retained list out and take it from there."

Hughes, who became the club's third manager of the season in February after Sam Ricketts and Graham Barrow, saw Wrexham finish fourth in the National League with 84 points to clinch a play-off spot for the first time in six years.

The Reds boast the best home record in the division but Eastleigh triumphed following a stunning extra-time volley by captain Danny Hollands, but Hughes could not fault the effort from his side who twice hit the crossbar and had a goal controversially ruled out.

"I am gutted," said Hughes. "I have been in these situations before as a player, this is my first taste as a manager and it is not nice losing in the play-offs, especially when the emphasis here is on us to take the game to them being the home team.

"I thought we did that right from the start.

"It was an even game the first 45 minutes and from the start of the second half right the way through, I thought we were on the front foot and creating chances.

"I felt comfortable on the side and thought it was only a matter of time before we scored.

"It was disappointing to lose the game to an absolute wonder strike.

"This league is all about fine margins. Teams are quite capable of beating everyone, it doesn't matter where you are in the league.

"And against Eastleigh it was a fine margin, a fantastic finish and I can't take anything away from the lad.

"You talk about a good goal to win a game and that certainly was."

Kieran Kennedy's second half goal was disallowed for a foul on goalkeeper Luke Southwood but Hughes was adamant referee Martin Woods made the wrong decision.

"I was really angry on the side, I couldn't understand why it was ruled out," said Hughes.

"There is minimal touch on the goalkeeper and he has actually dropped the ball.

"At that stage of the game we are totally in control. Ten minutes into the second half, we get that goal and I could see us going on and getting more.

"Referees make decisions and unfortunately for us he has made a decision that has cost us our whole season. It is a hard one to take."

Hughes added: "The players are absolutely gutted. They wanted it as much as anyone, any Wrexham fan.

"They put their bodies on the line and pushed themselves to the limit.

"At the end we sent Rob Lainton up there to try and get a goal but it was cleared off the line.

"You just know then that it is not going to be our night and it wasn't in the end."