King's Lynn boss reflects on home FA Trophy exit against Hemel Hempstead

Tommy Widdrington was left to rue several missed chances for King's Lynn Town as they suffered an shock FA Trophy exit at the hands Hemel Hempstead

Widdrington’s side had numerous opportunities to put the tie to bed at The Walks after Ken Charles' opener, before visiting goalkeeper Craig King equalised in the dying moments of injury time after coming up for a corner to send the game to penalties.

There were few complaints from Widdrington after watching his side lose 5-4 from the penalty spot.

Widdrington said: "Ultimately we're disappointed as we've gone out of the FA Trophy. We wasn't unlucky, we went out because we didn't put the game to bed and we should have done.

"I don't know how many times we hit the woodwork in the game, but the amount of chances we've missed and the domination we've had, especially in the first half, we should have had the game put to sleep.

"As I said to the lads at half-time you don't want to come in at the end saying 'we should have, could have and would have' and that's how it was, it was one of those.

"It is what it is and now we have to move on to the next game."

As well as watching his side hit the woodwork no fewer than three times, Lynn's boss was also aggrieved with the performance of the match officials, saying: "I'm fed up having to pick the bones out the performance of the third team on the pitch but I can't blame them for us not scoring the amount of goals we should have.

"Big Gold (Omotayo) has had some great publicity for his goals in recent weeks, but today he's missed three ridiculously easy chances, but that's the life of a footballer at this level.

"If you hit the bar then you should be hitting the net so from that point of view it's the error of the striker, it isn't any work by the defender or goalkeeper."

Charles, who spent a month out on loan with National League South side Cheshunt, netted with an excellent first-half volley against The Tudors and on another day could have easily helped himself to a hat-trick.

The 22-year-old, who had struggled for minutes on the pitch with Lynn before today, was back in a Linnets' shirt after recently scoring a treble against Chippenham Town while out on loan with The Ambers.

Widdrington admitted that the frontman will have to remain patient before forcing himself into his plans on a regular basis.

"It was a great finish by him," said the Lynn boss.

"Ken has gone out on loan because he wants to play football and he's played six games and scored five goals, so we thought it was the right time to give him an opportunity.

"He's way behind in terms of the speed and the thought process of how we play and that's no disrespect to the club he has been playing for as they play a different way to us.

"If he sticks at it, he'll get more opportunities but ultimately he's one of many players who didn't do enough on the day to make sure we're through to the next round of the FA Trophy."