Maidstone’s battling victory at Torquay trumped their FA Cup upset against Cheltenham for manager Jay Saunders.

Saunders’ side ground out a 1-0 victory at Plainmoor to stay fifth in the National League, a week on from their 4-2 first-round win over the Robins.

Torquay, trailing to Joe Pigott’s superb free-kick, threw everything at Maidstone but the visitors survived.

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Saunders said: “I’m more pleased with that than I am last week.

“I know that sounds silly because you’ve gone to a League 2 club and beaten them comfortably but, for me, you’re on a hiding to nothing after that result.

“It’s always hard the next game.

“You don’t want to make a big point of it but you notice it in training, people are not quite at it after the result and it’s a mental thing.

“Were we at our best? No. Did we create enough in the final third? No. Were we good enough on the ball? Probably not.

“But you look back on a season and you go that’s a hell of a three points there and we’ve had to dig deep and got the job done.”

Stones keeper Lee Worgan and his defence denied Torquay as Gary Owers’ side - second-bottom in the table - went for the throat in the second half.

The pick of Worgan’s work was a terrific save from Josh McQuoid with the Gulls man racing through on his own.

Saunders said: “The lad goes through one-on-one and he’s made a hell of a save. That’s what Worgs does.

“He’s carrying a groin problem and he was outstanding again.

“I thought the back four were.

“When you’re Gary’s side they’ve got to come and attack you.

“You could see the way way they’re playing - 3-4-3 - and really having a go because they need points on the board and it was tough for us second half.

“When you’re not at your best you need your defenders to defend properly, you need your keeper to do his job, you need everyone to pull together and what we have got is a really honest group who give me 100%.”

Read the match report from Maidstone's 1-0 win at Torquay