Sevenoaks Town boss Harry Hudson was proud of his team on Saturday - but left wondering what might have been.

The Isthmian South East side gave an incredible performance against full-time Ebbsfleet, only for two second-half goals to end the club’s best-ever FA Cup run at the Fourth Qualifying Round stage.

“I am proud because of the performance that we showed but it feels like we could have caused a huge upset and we didn’t, which is obviously disappointing,” said Hudson.

“The club has done themselves proud and that’s really important. Ebbsfleet knew they were in for a game.”

Sevenoaks could have easily been ahead by half-time. Ebbsfleet keeper Mark Cousins had to produce an outstanding one-handed save to deny substitute Freddie Parker an opener.

And when the visitors did have the ball in the net, via skipper Corey Holder’s header, the offside flag came to Ebbsfleet’s rescue.

“By half-time I think we had the better opportunities to score,” said Hudson. “I know they hit the underside of the bar from outside the box but the goalie has made an unbelievable save.

“I thought that was in, and then when the header went in I didn’t even think to look for the linesman’s flag. I hope it is offside because it if isn’t I’ll be devastated.

“We had another one-on-one opportunity and I felt we were getting opportunities against them and they were giving them to us because of the way they play.

“They could argue they keep plugging away and stuff will open up, but the goal was not a fantastic pattern, it was a ricochet that’s gone straight into the path of their player. The most important thing for us was to be structured, organised, give a good account of ourselves and to look a threat, and I think we ticked all those boxes.”

Hudson wants his teams to play football and get the ball down. They did it in brief patches but he is already a big fan of what Dennis Kutrieb has introduced at Ebbsfleet.

“It’s a fantastic style and they're a real credit to non-league,” added the Sevenoaks boss.

“I’m a young manager but everyone will tell you that in non-league you can’t win anything playing football.

“Dennis is changing that mentality which is brilliant as I believe we need more people in non-league that want to showcase the talent of players we have rather than have the ball in the air and have spectators with neck-ache.

“For me that’s great and I respect them a lot for what they do. We had a plan and, in my opinion, I don’t believe Ebbsfleet knew how to break that down.

“We changed the way we defended. We didn’t necessarily change the way we wanted to play with the football.

“We knew it was going to be different because at our level we would have extended spells with the ball.

“I still think we showed our identity with the ball, we didn’t shy away from playing when we had opportunities to do so. We could have been better with that, no doubt, but I’ve got to be realistic about what I’m asking players to be able to do.

“We created enough to score a goal and if it wasn’t for going down to 10 men I think we would have had a bloody good go at Ebbsfleet in the last 15 minutes. Again, that’s another gripe where it’s gone against us but we can’t control those things.”