Kings crashed out of the FA Trophy at the first hurdle with 4-1 reverse at their Isthmian league counterparts. The score line belied the closeness of the encounter but to a large part Kings were masters of their own downfall by gifting their opponents opportunities which they, invariably, devoured with alacrity.

The Cray team featured a host of recent signings while Kings’ own recent additions of Florian Kastrati, Jamie Jellis, and Alex Lafleur were all in the starting line-up. Kings were first out the blocks with Alfie Williams conspicuous in setting up some early forays which stretched the home defence but reaped no early reward. The advantage instead went to the hosts with their first meaningful attack after ten minutes. The pacey Afrane-Kesey made inroads down the left before his low cross was jointly contested by Will Hall and Cray’s Anthony Cook.

Harshly, the Kings player was adjudged to have transgressed with his challenge at the expense of a penalty which Cook, himself, duly converted.

Buoyed by their success, Cray mounted several more promising attacks which were only repelled by resolute Kings defending. The visitors too had their moments and only a brilliant one-handed save from Cray custodian Jack Turner kept out Alfie William’s fierce low drive after he combined well with Harry Crawford. However, this was to be a portent to parity as just minutes later it was Williams again to the fore as he swung in a wickedly curling free kick which eluded everyone and found the corner of the net and ensured Kings were level at the break.

The second period started calamitously for Kings as once again, their seemingly routine vulnerability from corners was exposed to their detriment. This time Cray captain Dean Beckwith was the beneficiary as he acrobatically swept home a loose ball after Kings failed to clear.

To their credit, Langley reacted positively to the setback and driven forward by captain Roddy Collins they launched a wave of enterprising attacks, but all too often a lack of composure or quality in the final third thwarted their endeavours. One such attack, however, generated a pivotal moment in the match when Arel Amu broke clear of the defence only to be hauled down by the formidable Richie Danquah.

With Alfie Marriott’s ‘Farnborough farce’ fresh in the memory, this looked a ‘nailed on’ denial of a goal scoring opportunity. Unfortunately for Kings referee Holden took a far more lenient view than Alfie’s persecutor, issuing only a caution, much to the chagrin of Kings travelling faithful and to the huge relief of Danquah.

Kings battled to the end but a stubborn home defence in which, ironically, Danquah was immense, was in no mood to surrender their advantage and were quick to counter the threat of danger. Two more goals to the hosts in added time was a cruel twist of the knife that Kings didn’t deserve. First up was man of the match Chris Dickson striking a ferocious volley into the top corner, followed by a deftly adept chip from substitute Daniel Uchechi to complete Kings’ misery.

Cruel as it was, it must be said, both were superbly executed efforts and symptomatic of the cutting edge quality that Kings are currently lacking.