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Head coach Hakan Hayrettin rued 'five minutes of madness' after Maidstone went out of the FA Cup at Blackpool.
United led at the break but hopes of an upset disappeared as the Tangerines scored three times at the start of the second half.
George Elokobi's freak own goal made it 1-1 and the League 1 side punished poor defending to open up a decisive lead in Sunday's second-round tie.
Hayrettin said: "It's five minutes of madness. The last words we said at half-time were the next 10 minutes are vital to what you're going to do.
"Any team that's in the higher echelons, they're going to go in and get a rollicking and they're going to come out all guns blazing.
"If we'd have cleared our lines and defended as a unit, as a four, and got people in the way, and did the job we were supposed to do, we would never have been in that position but it happens.
"If you take that out of the game I thought we were a credit.
"I thought we did ever so well against a very good team who, if you look at it, November's probably been their best month.
"We didn't give up, we still had a go, there were 72 places between the teams but I don't think you could see that on the day.
"We're happy with our performance apart from that five minutes of madness.
"We've done ever so well to get this far, to come and ply our trade against a Football League club 72 places higher and not disgrace ourselves."
Maidstone were backed by 420 travelling fans at Bloomfield Road.
They've had some fun in the FA Cup in recent years and Hayrettin appreciated their support.
He said: "The support was unbelievable, as usual.
"It's a shame it wasn't on a Saturday because I'm pretty sure we'd have had over a thousand people here.
"They actually sung as though there were over a thousand people."
