Jay Saunders defended Lee Worgan after the goalkeeper’s mistake in Maidstone’s FA Trophy exit on Saturday.

Stones lost 1-0 at home to Ryman League Bognor Regis after captain and player-of-the-month Worgan was horribly caught out by the Rocks’ Chike Kandi.

But there was still plenty of time to salvage the first-round tie after Kandi’s 17th-minute strike and instead of blaming his keeper, Saunders pointed to another frustrating day in front of goal.

The Stones boss said: “Worgs was gutted. He was apologising at half-time but we’ve got a long time in the game left to get him out of it and sometimes you’ve got to do that.

“He’s kept us in games this year and I think the other boys have got to do that for him, they’ve got to dig him out of it.

“We’ve put a lot of balls in the box, we’ve had a couple of real good chances but we’ve not taken them and it’s the story of our season.

“We’re not scoring enough goals - it’s as simple as that. That’s why we’ve brought new lads in. It’s a problem we’ve got to solve but I just feel it was a chance to progress.

“We’ve not been good enough to break them down. You can have all the possession in the world but if you don’t break teams down and take your chances then you don’t win games.”

It was a third home defeat in a fortnight for Stones and Saunders, who was missing Joe Healy with a groin problem and Tom Mills through suspension, added: “The frustrating thing for us is it’s a game where we’ve had plenty of possession and not scored goals.

“If you’re scoring a few goals and you lose the game it’s not so bad but when you’re sitting there not scoring enough goals it’s frustrating not only for me but for other people.”

New signings Vas Karagiannis and Dan Sweeney were ineligible but joined in the warm-up before watching from the stands.