Hythe boss Steve Watt was left to reflect on the quality at both ends of the pitch after their FA Cup exit at Dartford.

A 5-1 defeat underlined the quality of the finishing on the day at Princes Park as National League South leaders Darts progressed at the expense of a team two levels below them.

"It's a reflection of the quality of Dartford," said Watt. "The game itself was closer but we made five individual errors that led to five goals. When you're playing a team like Dartford with the quality that they've got if you make any sort of mistake you'll get punished and that's what happened.

"I'm more than happy how the boys played, we gave a good account of ourselves especially given the difficulties we had in our backline and the players we had missing. I was more than happy how we played and we caused them one or two problems.

"We changed the shape as we thought with the quality they've got we could frustrate them a bit. Frannie went down really early so we decided to go for it and went back to our original shape, 4-2-3-1, and got the reward straight away with a fantastically worked goal."

Hythe's cause was not helped by the absence of defender Scott Doe, losing left-back Nathan Gordon to a hamstring injury in the warm-up and then the experienced duo of Frannie Collin and Tom Wynter failing to complete 90 minutes due to injury.

They gave the Darts a scare midway through the first half with a well-worked equaliser when Darren Oldaker set up Alex Brown to score against his former club.

But it was a task too far for Watt's side, especially with their depleted squad.

"The only frustrating thing was that we didn't have everyone here so we could give a better account of ourselves defensively," he added. "We cut through them and got opportunities and chances but the difference was in the two boxes.

"That's a reflection of our games this season, we're creating chance after chance and scraping through games 1-0 or 2-1 when they should be out of sight. It was a free hit for us but I'm happy how we've played.

"Nathan came off with it on Tuesday night (against Sittingbourne) and we took him off then with an eye on the FA Cup game. He seemed fine but towards the end of the warm-up he felt it was ready to go and it was a risk we couldn't take. It's not ideal when you look at your back four with two of them not there."

Hythe visit Southern League Central side Welwyn Garden City in the FA Trophy this weekend with Watt hoping his players can learn from the FA Cup experience.

"The lessons we have to take away are to take our chances when we get them," he added.

"I thought we had enough chances to score more goals. In our box, we can't make silly mistakes, particularly at this level. You might get away with them at our level but the quality of players they've got at Dartford will punish you.

"There's always lessons to be learned in wins and losses, probably more when you do lose games. We'll learn from it, I've got a good blend of youth and experience and there's no-one with their heads down.

"They're just disappointed with how the goals were scored rather than how we played."

• Report: Dartford 5 Hythe 1

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