Tonbridge missed out on a place in the Kent Senior Cup final on Tuesday night - but there’s still plenty to play for.

A 90th-minute wonder strike from Elijah Anthony gave Ebbsfleet a 1-0 semi-final victory at Stonebridge Road.

It was harsh on Angels whose boss Jay Saunders wanted to take the club to a final before he leaves at the end of the season.

However, he’s determined to secure a top-10 finish in the final seven games of the National League South campaign.

They’re 11th going into a home match against Chelmsford this Saturday (3pm), three points behind Hemel Hempstead.

Saunders said: “We’ve said to the boys we’re not going to drop off, we’re going to try our hardest to finish as high as we can and that’s the target, to be in that top 10.

“It won’t be easy but that’s the plan.

“There’s still that pressure from us because we’ve been in the top 10 all season so to fall away would be a big blow.

“Yes, people have had to leave the club and the squad’s thin, so it’s not made it easier, but I think the boys deserve to finish in the top 10 because we’ve been there or thereabouts and it’s been like that over the three seasons.

“I don’t just want to fall away and that’s what we’re trying to get across to the players.

“We’ll push them and as a management team we’ll continue to do what we’ve done all season and give them as much information and a platform to do their jobs.”

Tonbridge, beaten 2-0 at Bath last weekend, looked set to take Ebbsfleet to penalties in the cup semi-final.

But they were rocked in the last minute when Anthony sent Fleet through to a final against Welling at Priestfield next month.

“It’s a shame because I thought we were the better side over the 90 minutes,” said Saunders.

“We had the better chances, but it’s the story of us, we’re kind of the nearly men.

“We didn’t take our chances and then the fella hits a great strike.

“If you gave him 100 balls, I don’t think he’d do it again but he’s put one straight in the top corner and there wasn’t a lot we could do about that.

“It was a blow because I thought we were good.

“I know they made loads of changes but I thought we gave a really good account of ourselves.

“I couldn’t see them scoring, it wasn’t like they’d had loads of chances.

“The ref’s given a terrible decision against us for a handball which allowed them to put it in our box, it’s come back out, comes to their right-back and it’s a hell of a strike.

“We put a lot of effort in and I felt we deserved at least a go at penalties.

“We certainly didn’t deserve to lose it in 90 minutes but that’s the way it goes and we’ve just got to pick ourselves up.

“We’ve had a good run but when you’re that close, you want to get to the final.

“Leaving the club at the end of the season, it would have been nice to sign off by winning something.”