A 3-1 defeat at Barkingside on Saturday ended Kingstonian’s involvement in the FA Trophy at the First Qualifying Round stage, writes Taimour Lay.

It’s the sixth time since the 2006-7 season that Ks have fallen at the opening hurdle of the competition, a sorry tale of missed opportunities and lost revenue.

Manager Tommy Williams appeared aghast at the display and it looks like there will be changes in personnel in the coming weeks, not least because of budget constraints.

“As a group we need to be stronger," said the manager.

"There are players out there who we keep saying are good footballers but [some of them] need to man up. It could be the end of the road for some, unfortunately.

"It’s important for the club that we get through in FA competitions because of the income. We’ll be speaking next week [about the budget] but I’ll certainly be making changes anyway.”

On the day after Halloween, at a ground adjacent to Ilford cemetery, this was a ghoulish result.

Barkingside lie 20th in the Ryman One North, groundshare at an athletics stadium and attract crowds below 50.

After a listless hour of windy hoof-ball, K’s in fact took the lead. New midfielder Luke Pigden, signed from Wealdstone, swung in a corner and Sam Page headed home inside the far post.

Then the collapse began.

Within a minute, Barkingside were level, Dion Polius capitalising on a mistake before beating Rob Tolfrey from 12 yards out.

Calvin Poku then gave the Essex team the lead after more woeful defending.

And the same striker finished the scoring three minutes from the end.

Despite Tolfrey making a brilliant save in the build-up, the ball ended up at Poku’s feet and he calmly completed the upset.

“With the conditions and the pitch, it was about decision-making today,” reflected Williams.

“We knew it was going to be ugly, but I thought once we’d scored we’d see the game out. We then conceded 10 seconds after we scored and we went into our shells.”

Ks lie 16th in the Ryman Premier table, with four games in hand on playoff rivals.

The first of those comes this Tuesday at Witham Town before the visit of Harrow Borough on Saturday.