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John Still stressed his disappointment after Maidstone’s FA Trophy collapse against Concord.
The Stones lost 3-2 after blowing a 2-0 lead in yesterday’s first-round tie at the Gallagher Stadium.
That would have some managers reaching for the ‘concentrate on the league’ cliche but not Still.
“The FA Trophy is massive,” said Maidstone’s head of football.
“I know a lot of people chop and change their team in this competition but I don’t think you should ever give up a chance of playing at Wembley.
“You should be as big and as bold and as brave as you can be.
“People say it doesn’t come alive till the quarter-finals but I don’t subscribe to that at all.”
Maidstone were on course for the second round after early goals from Zihni Temelci and Matt McClure.
But a soft goal before half-time, when Jake Cole parried a shot into the path of Kit Elliott, gave Concord hope.
United went on to concede twice in three minutes near the death as Lamar Reynolds and Danny Green - an old player of Still’s - sent Rangers through.
Still said: “At 2-0 up I thought we were comfortable if I’m being honest.
“I think the first goal was the catalyst for them.
“The goalie’s made a mistake and that gives you a bit of hope.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’ve still got 45 minutes to play and I thought we started the second half OK and we had a couple of chances.
“They kept going, their second goal was a well-worked goal and the free-kick, Danny Green’s my old player and I said if he comes on I don’t care where he is, he’ll shoot.
“Everyone knew he was going to shoot, and he did and he scored.
“From 2-0 up to concede three goals, it’s not good enough.
“If you concede three goals at home you don’t expect to win.”
Maidstone filled a seven-man bench but for the second weekend running decided against making any changes.
Iffy Allen and Nana Kyei were the only realistic options but Still and head coach Hakan Hayrettin were happy with Justin Amaluzor.
Still said: “We put everyone we had available on the bench.
“The only real changes we felt we had were perhaps Iffy and Nana but they were in positions where we thought we did OK.
“We lack in midfield a little bit, Clovis Kamdjo has probably only trained a couple of days.
“Because we’ve got so many injuries we don’t want people to come on and reinjure, so we didn’t use them.”
