DERRY – Bob Agri is proof you can't keep a true Patriots fan down.

Coming off the heels of the team's heartbreaking 17-14 Super Bowl loss to the New York Giants, the Derry contractor was forced to file away a pair of vanity tags he ordered to commemorate what would have been the second perfect season in NFL history.

But in a supreme example of making lemonade out of lemons, Agri went to town hall early yesterday morning and came away with an equally prized piece of aluminum - a new license plate that reads "NE18&0," a reference to the team's record heading into Sunday night's game. It'll be affixed to his truck as soon as it arrives in the mail.

"I couldn't believe it was still available and, when I found out it was, that was it," Agri said. "We're pretty excited about it."

Naturally, he'd prefer showing off the "19&0 PAT" and "NE19&0" plates that landed him and his wife, Jeanne, in the New Hampshire Sunday News. But Agri isn't despairing over the single sinister loss that will define the 2007-2008 New England Patriots.

"I'm still proud of them. If you're not, you're not a true fan. You can't have everything," he said.

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Agri's decision to celebrate perfection before it happened was panned by some on UnionLeader.com, the newspaper's Web site.

"This is what happens when Pats fans start acting like Yankees fans used to and assuming they can't be beat," wrote "Jeff," a poster from Burlington, Vt.

Bill in Manchester complimented the Giants for "knocking the cockiness out of the Patriots and their fans" while Dennis in Derry was reminded of "something about counting your chickens before they hatch."

Still, Agri, a Patriots fan since 1984, said he ranks the Patriots ahead of the juggernaut 1972 Dolphins - who can still pop a bottle of champagne at being professional football's only undefeated squad.

"They couldn't even keep up with the Patriots of today," Agri said.

Agri said he didn't lose hope that the plates would see the light of day, even after Giants quarterback Eli Manning threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress with 35 seconds remaining.

"We've been there a couple of times," Agri said. "But I still believed in them when there was 35 seconds left. I didn't give up."

The original plates aren't going to waste.

"I'm going to hang them right in the office," Agri said. "Everything's good to go."