BELLE VUE boss Mark Lemon admitted it was a “horrible feeling” after the title defence ended at Ipswich.
The ATPI Aces went down by 59-31 to the Witches in the second leg of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership semi-final at Foxhall Heath.
After holding the home side in the early stages, and in very difficult wet conditions, eventually Ipswich pulled clear from the halfway point to win by 22 points on aggregate.
Lemon said: “We’ve been here four times this year and obviously our performances have been pretty poor.
“To execute that in a play-off semi-finals, it’s a horrible feeling to be quite honest.
“The boys tried everything tonight, they just couldn’t get off the starts.
“You can’t give anyone a head start on a track that’s so one line.
“It’s the way it is. You can’t take anything away from Ipswich, they’ve been the best team all year.
“We had a couple of spills too. But we had 12 lasts, you’re not going to win anything with those results.
“We’ve got a young team. I was banking on seeing more progress than we had. But experience cost us at the end of the day.
“I’m proud of the boys regardless. It’s disappointing. It’s going to hit home pretty hard.”
It was a particularly tough night with even the top two of Brady Kurtz and Dan Bewley unusually failing to hit double figures.
There were good wins early on for Norick Blodorn, Zach Cook and Jaimon Lidsey but there was no consistency.
Bewley added: “It’s very disappointing to be honest. First of all fair play to Ipswich, congrats to them and we wish them well in the final.
“Personally, my first race was terrible, huge mistake mechanically on my end.
“I actually thought I was on after my second race, changed bikes, had a real good start. But I didn’t make a start after that.
“It was tough out there but to be honest, it was quite fun. If you were in front the track was nice. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a track like that.
“A pretty average night points wise. It is what it is. Cheers to Belle Vue fans for sticking by us all season. It wasn’t the result they wanted. Now for next time.”
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF, SEMI-FINAL, 2nd LEG.
IPSWICH 59: Tom Brennan 12+2, Jason Doyle 11, Dan Thompson 10+3, Danny King 10, Adam Ellis 7+1, Jason Edwards 5+3, Emil Sayfutdinov 4+2.
BELLE VUE 31: Norick Blodorn 7+1, Zach Cook 7, Jaimon Lidsey 5, Brady Kurtz 4+1, Dan Bewley 4, Tate Zischke 2, Jake Mulford 2.
Ipswich win 101-79 on aggregate.