Cray Wanderers manager Danny Kedwell felt six mad minutes cost his team the chance of another FA Trophy upset on Saturday.

The Wands looked well in the game against National League South promotion hopefuls Dartford at Hayes Lane before three quickfire goals midway through the first half sealed their fate.

Wanderers kept going to the end and nearly set up a grandstand finish after Jai Reason pulled a goal back with 15 minutes left.

“The boys were magnificent,” said former Gillingham and Ebbsfleet forward Kedwell, who came off the bench for the last 25 minutes.

“They had a mad six minutes and I’ve told the players that those six minutes cost us the game.

“We defended well up to that point, the game plan worked, we pressed them and they gave the ball away a lot to us. After the first goal we stopped pressing them and let them have the ball, and teams like Dartford will punish you.

“I don’t think it’s a penalty, Marvin has won the ball first and I think it’s a bit harsh. The lino said it wasn’t a penalty and the fourth official said it wasn’t a penalty so I don’t know what the referee’s seen. Andy Drury had exactly the same thing (late on) and he didn’t give it.

“We’ve had a good run, but we knew it was going to be tough as Kingy always has good teams, always attracts top players and is a good man. We’ve got a good relationship, he has helped me with Cameron Brodie (on loan at Cray) this season who was a massive miss for us.

“We had seven players out - including Ethan Kaiser who was cup tied, Anthony Cook, Chris Dickson, Freddie Barton, Tom Hanfrey. They’re big players for us.”

The tie was effectively decided by Dartford’s clinical finishing in one penalty area and Cray’s failure to cash in on the chances that came their way.

Fjord Rogers hit the woodwork early on while Jamie Yila twice failed to convert headers early in the second half.

“That’s the margins and it’s been us this year,” reflected Kedwell. “We dominate games but don’t take our chances and then we get punished. It’s happened again.

“We had our chances, obviously the (Rogers) header, and second half, Jamie Yila’s header. We’ve got to punish teams so once we get that then we’ll be a very good team and will go up the league.

“It just goes to show how good a team we are when we play Ebbsfleet and Dartford in the FA Trophy and haven’t embarrassed ourselves. We’ve dominated most of the games and made it hard for them but we have to do that in the league.

“We’ve played two quality teams and apart from those six minutes I don’t think we deserved to lose but that’s the quality Dartford have got. They’ve got players out but they’ve still got quality to come in.”

Kedwell’s team sit second-bottom in the Isthmian Premier but with games in hand after their FA Trophy exploits.

They’ve got enough quality in their squad to comfortably finish mid-table but Kedwell wants his players to believe they are good enough.

“They’ve got to build and be confident more,” said the Cray boss. “We’re a very good team with very good players, both individually and as a group. They’re good boys who work hard so it will come, we’ve got to keep going.

“Especially in the final third, we’ve got to start believing we will take our chances. I can see the frustration in them, they really want to score. They do some great play, get in the final third and it’s like a rush because we want to win so bad.

“We need to try and calm them down a bit. I’ve got to chill them out and the goals will come. Some of the goals we’ve scored have been frightening but we’ve got to take that performance into games and then take more chances.”