Boss Neil Cugley cannot remember experiencing the agony and ecstasy of the past week in such quick succession previously in his 20 years as Folkestone manager.

Invicta produced their best display of the season to topple unbeaten Ryman League, Premier Division leaders Leiston on Tuesday night, only to throw away a 2-0 lead on their way to being knocked out of the FA Trophy by lower-league North Leigh at the Fullicks Stadium less than four days later.

Cugley admitted to anger and disappointment but tried to remain philosophical after their 3-2 defeat in the second qualifying round, which saw the club miss out on £3,250 in prize money and a potential home tie with Tonbridge in the next round.

He said: “I said before the game football can kick you when you’re on a high and so it proved.

“Things like this have got to be expected. When you take players from lower leagues you always get inconsistency. We have brought them here to improve them and give them experience. Maybe my expectations of them were a bit high.”

Harry Smith, who left Invicta in the summer, scored on his League 1 debut for Millwall on Saturday having netted twice on his full Lions debut four days earlier.

Cugley claimed: “He has shown that if players do want to learn then we can help them become better players. Hopefully, they learn from this. Next time we will hopefully handle it differently.

“We should have put the game to bed. We missed a couple of chances which would have ended it in the first 15 minutes, then they got a lift from a goal just before half-time and we didn’t respond well in the second half. We were probably a bit naive and we were disappointed.”

Invicta sit 15th ahead of their return to league action at home to AFC Sudbury, a place below, on Saturday, although they are just three points behind Tuesday’s visitors Billericay who occupy the final play-off place.

Cugley added: “If we play like Saturday we’ll be relegated at the end of the season but if we play like we did on Tuesday, we could be in the play-offs.

“The league is the main thing for us and the last two games we have been good and hopefully we can take that into the next two.

“I’m enjoying the league this season. There aren’t the highs of (promotion) last season but then there was expectation. This year it’s tougher but if you pick up a win, you feel the pleasure and delight of having earned it.”

Forward Anthony O’Connor has been released.