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Hakan Hayrettin blasted Maidstone’s game management after their FA Cup exit at Wimborne.
The Stones lost 3-1 on penalties after a 2-2 draw, conceding the equaliser in the final seconds of injury time.
Boss Hayrettin was fuming after his side failed to see out the game, with United knocked out in the qualifying stages for the first time in seven years.
He said: “The game management is the most important thing for me.
“We spoke about this, about seeing the game out and doing the right things at the death, but we didn’t do the right things and we paid the price.
“We’ve lost the ball on the edge of their box, both my two central midfield players are galloping forward.
“That’s not game management.
"They should be doing the job we’ve asked them to do and 90 per cent of the time they did do but, for whatever reason, we had two midfield players in advance of some of their players, we broke down, they went up the other end and we paid the price.
“It’s not a nice pill to swallow, losing to a team from a lower level, but I’m more disappointed with the fact we didn’t see the game out.
“We drove on on Saturday (at Havant) and got a point.
“Tonight, we didn’t do the right things to win the game.
“You’ve got to do the right things in the right areas for 90 minutes, 95, even longer. We proved that on Saturday.
“Tonight, I think a couple of our players got a bit carried away because it was an open game, thinking, ‘I’m going to score’, where previously we kept the ball in the left corner and the right corner.
“And then, at that one crucial moment where we needed to do it again, we didn’t and they went up the other end, unopposed cross, ball comes into the box, unopposed shot and it’s a goal.”
Maidstone had the chance to go 3-1 up in normal time but missed from the spot for the second game running, with Scott Rendell’s kick saved.
Teenager Wimborne keeper Billy Terrell - in tears after the game - made a string of fine saves, then kept out penalties from George Elokobi and Joe Ellul at the start of the shoot-out, while Dominic Odusanya hit the woodwork from Maidstone’s third attempt.
Hayrettin said: “The keeper made some outstanding saves. He was man-of-the-match. Saying that, we should have been clear by then.
“He made six, seven, maybe eight good saves but we had chances to win.
“Listen, I said it was going to be the toughest game we played.
“The turning point is the penalty miss, without a doubt. We go 3-1 up and the game’s dead and buried but we’ve got to have a look at that because that’s the second penalty in two games we’ve missed.
"There’s a few things we need to address but I’ve just told them in there, pick yourselves up, dust yourselves down, we go back to work on Thursday.”
