Ben Smith has seen enough to know Canterbury City have a great chance of going all the way to Wembley.

The City boss had his players in a big huddle on the pitch after the end of their FA Vase semi-final first leg at Cray Valley on Sunday.

Canterbury lost the game 1-0 but the manager's belief was soaring and he put a simple question to his squad ahead of next weekend's decider.

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Smith said: "If you don't think you can beat this lot, you're mad.

"I asked them the question 'who doesn't think they can beat this lot?' and not one of them turned round and said no.

"You look at chances and we had the more chances.

"I've said, in every interview I've done about Cray Valley, I wasn't fearful of their players, I was fearful of the fact that if they get chances, they take them. With us, you never know and today is one of the days when we didn't take our chances. We had three or four clear-cut chances and they've had one shot really.

"Looking at that, no-one from our club should be downbeat, we're upbeat and everything I thought should happen in the tactics we set up, it happened."

Ryan Flack's 55th-minute goal settled the first leg but City were piling on the pressure in the closing stages.

Their set-pieces - especially long throws from Ryan Cooper - caused the Millers all sorts of problems and only poor finishing let the visitors down.

Smith said: "There's a slight disappointment the way we finished it because we should be level. Yeah, I know they're one goal up but I'm probably happier than (Cray Valley boss Kevin Watson) will be.

"There's three chances there: Ryan Cooper, Bola Dawodu slipped at the last minute when he's two yards away from an open goal and Dean Grant's had a good chance.

"There's chances there, we know that, but we'll stick to our defensive shape because that gave us a foothold in the game and it shows how well the lads have responded to that and taken it on board because they did it perfectly.

"Don't forget, this is a group of lads that we've brought together. It gives us another week to work with these lads and for them to build a rapport together.

"We're definitely not out of it. I'm probably more upbeat on our chances now than I was before the start of the game."

The second leg takes place at Salters Lane, Faversham, on Saturday with a 3pm kick-off.

Click here for reaction from Cray Valley manager Kevin Watson