Honest Hythe boss Clive Cook was left shell-shocked by his side’s play-off humiliation.

The Cannons were stuffed 7-0 at Worthing on Tuesday night in their Ryman League Division 1 South play-off semi-final as their season came crashing to an abrupt end.

“People will look at the score and say wow,” said Cook. “It hurts and, as we said in the changing room, as long as it hurts all round then at least we’ve got something out of it.

“We’ve got to dust ourselves down. I’m happy to have got the club into a very good position but I don’t do seven-nils.

“That’s the second play-off I’ve had as a loss, one as an assistant and one as a manager. Both times we haven’t played well, it’s got to be third time lucky but I don’t want that.

“It’s all about manning up and making sure we don’t go through this again – and that’s what we’ve got to do. I’m definitely not going through it again.”

Cook refused to use Worthing’s 3G pitch at Woodside Road as an excuse but he felt his team always faced an uphill task after losing at Faversham last Saturday.

That defeat meant Hythe had to travel to Worthing in the play-offs, instead of hosting the Sussex club at Reachfields.

“They are a very good side, very quick,” said Cook. “We knew that and I feel that we lost the play-offs on Saturday.

“If we had got the home draw it would have given us more incentive because it’s on grass. But I don’t want to make any excuses.

“I didn’t expect Saturday (at Faversham). I didn’t see that one coming. I thought if we turned up, we’d get a result and get the home draw.

“The home draw was imperative because they play the pitch superbly and we knew that, we knew if we got anything out of this it would be a bonus because we knew coming here would be tough.

“I didn’t expect a 7-0, of course I didn’t – no manager would. It’s a big pill to swallow, but we will, and over the course of a few weeks we’ll get ourselves in order.”