Ks boss Tommy Williams wants his men to repeat their FA Cup performance against Eastbourne Borough in the league to stay in the hunt for promotion.

Kingstonian crashed out of the cup in heartbreaking fashion as an injury time Darren Lok strike saw the Conference South visitors grab a 3-2 win at Kingsmeadow on Sunday.

Goals from Simon Johnson and Lloyd Foot had put the Sports 2-0 up early in the second half before Elvis Hammond struck twice to seemingly put Ks on their way to a re-match.

But Williams and his men had not reckoned on substitute Lok popping up with the winner in the 92nd minute to end hopes of a place in the fourth qualifying round.

But despite the disappointment the Kingsmeadow chief believed his men had proved they are not far from the level required to be a Conference South outfit.

"In the second half we were tremendous and it looked like only one team would win it and that was us. I feel for the lads I really do," said the manager.

"As good as we were, we could have done better further up the pitch with all three of their goals.

“But I really feel for the lads. The least we deserved was another crack at it.

“If any neutral came to the game I don’t think they would have been able to tell who was the Ryman Premier League side and who was from the Conference South.

“Eastbourne are where we want to be and what Sunday showed is we are not too far away from them.

He added: “The group should take a lot from that performance. We need to take that desire, tempo and passion into our league fixtures.

“If we do that then I don’t see why we can’t be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.”

Ks, currently 11th in the Ryman Premier League table, host Billericay Town on Saturday knowing it is time they hit a purple patch of form to fire them up the table.

“We have got a lot of games to catch up on everyone else. We’ve played the least number of games in the league,” added Williams.

“Games will start to come thick and fast now.

“That can be a good thing because if you can get that winning mentality you cannot wait for the games to come quick enough.”