Kings Langley insist their title challenge is not done and dusted despite being knocked off the summit following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with mid-table Godalming Town, when they missed a penalty.

David Hutton’s failure from 12 yards allowed Royston Town, who were 4-0 winners over Aylesbury United, to overtake them at the summit of the Southern League Division One Central table.

It means the outcome of the title race is now out of Kings’ hands as Royston have a game in hand and are a point clear.

But Kings are in no mood to concede the title and have promised their rivals – who must play third-placed Egham Town twice – a fight to the end for the silverware.

Paul Hughes, who joint-manages the side with Ritchie Hanlon, said: “Royston have that game in hand and you would have to say they are favourites because of that. But we’re still in a fantastic position. It’s not season over by a long way. We’ve still got a chance of the title and if you’d have said that to us at the start of the season we’d have taken that.

“Royston are the favourites now but they have still got a lot to do and so do we. There’s still a lot of football to be played. Our heads are not down, the players are very bouyant and we are more than capable of going off on another run.”

But he admitted Saturday’s draw – which followed a rare defeat at the hands of Potters Bar Town – was an opportunity missed for his side who have been the surprise package this season.

He excused Hutton from any blame, preferring to lavish praise on the opposing keeper for his penalty save, but did say his team did not adapt well to the conditions.

He said: “The weather ruined the game but they coped better than us in the conditions and were better than us in possession. That’s what disappointed us and, after the game, we told them we expected better of them.”

After a goalless first half, where the elements were the only winner, Kings took matters into their own hands with a double substitution, bringing Dean Hitchcock on to beef up the midfield while Stevie Ward added some pace on the wing.

The switch soon paid off as Kings made the breakthrough on 54 minutes with a little bit of help from the wind.

Mitchell Weiss took aim from the left and his effort took off on a gust and flew over the keeper.

Kings did not make the most of their good fortune though, and within two minutes they were back where they started – level pegging. This time, Godalming’s Will Hutton was the beneficiary of the changeable wind as his shot took off and sailed over the head of Xavi Comas and into the Kings net.

Encouraged by his good fortune, Hutton tried twice more to repeat his luck with efforts that tested Comas.

But Kings were given the ideal opportunity to win it when Matt Bateman was taken out in the box by keeper Oneale Garnes as he chased Hitchcock’s through ball. The referee pointed to the spot and Garness guessed right to keep out Hutton’s penalty.

Hughes said: “It was a well-struck penalty and a good save. It wasn’t because of that we lost, we just didn’t do enough.”

With Storm Katie wiping out almost the entire league programme on Monday, Hughes’ men were robbed of the chance to bounce straight back from their disappointment and will instead have to wait until tomorrow's game at Uxbridge – surprise winners at Rushden and Diamonds two weeks ago – to get the frustration out of their system.