Steven King has challenged his Whitehawk players to make up for their FA Cup heartbreak by winning promotion.
The Hawks lost 3-2 after extra time to Dagenham and Redbridge in an FA Cup second round replay in front of a crowd of 2,174 at the Enclosed Ground last night.
The Vanarama National League south hosts made a mockery of the 31 places between themselves and League Two Dagenham.
They led through Danny Mills’ 18th goal of the season which continued his run of scoring in every round of the competition.
After conceding twice, King’s side forced extra time when Argentinean centre-back Juan Cruz Gotta scored in the third minute of stoppage time at the end of 90 minutes.
However, Ayo Obileye’s header in the first period of extra time decided the contest.
Now King wants his side, who are fifth in National League south, to go on and win promotion.
He said: “I am proud of them but because of the nature of me I’m gutted because I know we should have won the game in my opinion.
“It should have been all over in the first tie. Sometimes you don’t get a second chance but we got back in it and because I’m a winner it is hard to take.
“Promotion is the challenge. We must dust ourselves down but that is a bitter pill for us to swallow. It will take a bit of time to get over this but we showed we were more than capable in that game.
“We gave everything and Sergio Torres was outstanding.”
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