MARK Collier ordered his Chippenham Town troops to refocus their energies towards their Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division play-off quest after the disappointment of their unfortunate FA Cup exit this afternoon.

The Bluebirds’ dream of joining the likes of Swindon Town and other Football League clubs in the first round of the country’s premier cup competition came to an end as they suffered a 2-0 loss to in-form National League outfit Maidstone United.

Despite not being in league action, Collier’s troops remain fifth in the table – they’ve been at the business end of matters all term – and the Hardenhuish Park boss is keen for his troops to not let their cup regrets weigh heavy when they host Slough Town on Tuesday evening.

“I thought our all-round game was good enough – if you’d have been a neutral, you wouldn’t have said there was anything between the two teams – but it’s fine lines,” said Collier.

“We talked about fine lines before the game and maybe those fine lines have come back to haunt us.

“They’ve let one goal in away from home, so we knew they were going to be difficult to break down. When we’ve got a chance, the keeper’s pulled off a good save so credit to them for that.

“You need that luck and I don’t think we’ve had too much of it. However, that’s football and we get over it. We’ve got a good squad of players and it’s important that we stick together.

“We’ve got a great league season in front of us now. We’ve had a great little cup run – unfortunately, it’s come to an end now – and we need to move on and get three points against Slough on Tuesday.

“We mustn’t hide from the fact that we could have been knocked out of the FA Cup when after 15 minutes, we were down to ten men at Frome (in the first qualifying round) but we came through that.

“We’ve had some difficult away games but we’ve had our day today. We’ve come up against a good side and unfortunately, everyone will be talking about the big incidents that changed the game.

“But we move on. Next time, hopefully we get our bit of luck and we’ll be grateful for it.”

There were controversial moments aplenty in front of a bumper crowd of 811 as Alex Osborn went down over Scott Bevan’s challenge, allowing Jay May to net from the penalty spot.

Keeper Kent Kauppinen was only booked for fouling May in the box before getting up and saving the striker’s resultant spot-kick – his second of the afternoon – before defender Greg Tindle was shown a red card for a last-ditch challenge on Maidstone’s Osborne.

The hosts also ended the afternoon with nine men after Conor McCormack was forced off with an injury, allowing Bobby-Joe Taylor to rub salt in the wounds late on.

Boss Collier said: “The lads are disappointed. We thought we were a little unfortunate to concede a penalty in the first half.

“There was nothing between the teams in the first half, so we’re disappointed with the first penalty. Our lads are convinced there’s a big foul before it’s even got to Scott Bevan on the edge of the box.

“In the second half, we’d expect to be going down the slope and having a bit of a go. Unfortunately, we’ve thrown our three subs on because we thought today was our best opportunity of having a right go at it.

“Then we have an injury; then we have a man sent off. Maybe Kent could have been sent off as well but he’s decided to sent Tinds off, who’s got quite a bit of the ball.

“Tindle’s disappointed because he’s tracked his man, he’s got a bit of the ball and then he’s got a red card. The linesman said he wouldn’t have given it but the referee’s given it and that’s football, really.

“Unfortunately for us, when we were playing with ten men, I thought we could get something from the game – Tindle’s sending off is a big issue, really.”