Hythe Town can go some way to erasing the painful memory of their FA Cup exit when they hit the FA Trophy trail this weekend.

Manager Scott Porter (pictured) said all of his players "let the club down" when they crashed out of the cup 2-1 at home to Three Bridges on August 31.

That defeat cost Hythe £1,925 and Porter knows how important a Trophy run could be to the club’s finances. They host Tilbury in the first qualifying round on Saturday, with £2,700 up for grabs.

Porter said: "We need as much money as we can get, like every other club at our level. I don’t need to tell the players how important it is because they know.

"I was disappointed after the Three Bridges game and a lot of stuff was talked about inside the dressing-room that will never come out.

"It still hurts. It was a terrible performance but we’ve addressed it and we’ve moved on."

So does the Three Bridges debacle place even more significance on the Tilbury clash?

"The people upstairs will tell you that, because the money’s important," Porter said.

"But we treat it like another game. You can’t put too much pressure on because sometimes people can freeze."

Hythe host Ashford United in a friendly tonight (Wednesday).