Hakan Hayrettin questioned Maidstone at both ends of the pitch but still felt they deserved something against Hampton & Richmond.

The Stones fell seven points adrift of the National South play-off places after losing 2-1 to the Beavers in added time yesterday.

It’s the first time they’ve lost three league games in a row this season.

Head coach Hayrettin was critical of the defending for Hampton’s winner, having earlier seen his side fail to build on Justin Amaluzor’s opener.

“Football can be a cruel game,” said Hayrettin.

“I don’t think we deserved that but you defend like that then you’re going to get punished.

“Apart from the shot we had on target, we’ve had a few other attempts we should have scored from and the boys are saying we should have had a penalty but that’s a minor.

“You don’t buy a ticket, you aren’t going to win the raffle.

“We aren’t shooting. We’re creating but we’re not getting in there to finish them off.

“We started like a house on fire but we have a problem at the moment and we aren’t scoring.

“We aren’t finishing our chances, and that’s a big problem, and we’re going to have to look at that.”

Maidstone have it all to do in their play-off bid after three defeats in a week and Hayrettin won’t have any sulking.

He added: “I’ve been doing this job as a manager now since 2003.

“You’re going to get your ups and downs, it’s one of those moments where we’re down and we’ve got to swing till we come out the other end.

“It’s no coincidence that the boys are down, we had to pick them up at Chippenham, we had to pick them up after Bath game, it was a cruel blow today because we didn’t deserve that but that’s football.

“You’ve got to roll with it and pick yourselves up and go again.”

• Maidstone 1-2 Hampton

Read more: The latest sports news in Kent