Kings Langley’s hopes of a run in the FA Trophy ended at the first hurdle as they fell to a 4-1 defeat at Cray Wanderers in the third qualifying round on Sunday.

The scoreline belied the closeness of the tie but to a large extent Kings only had themselves to blame after gifting their opponents opportunities which they gratefully capitalised on.

The Cray team featured a host of new signings while Kings’ own recent additions of Florian Kastrati, Jamie Jellis and Alex Lafleur were all in the starting line-up.

The visitors were first out the blocks first with Alfie Williams conspicuous in setting up some early forays which stretched the home defence but reaped no early reward. The advantage instead went to the hosts with their first meaningful attack after ten minutes.

The pacey Richard Afrane-Kesey made inroads down the left before his low cross was jointly contested by Will Hall and Cray’s Anthony Cook. The Kings player was adjudged to have transgressed with his challenge at the expense of a penalty which Cook, himself, duly converted.

Buoyed by making the breakthrough, Wanderers mounted several more promising attacks which were only repelled by resolute defending. The visitors too had their moments and only a superb one-handed save from goalkeeper Jack Turner kept out Williams’ fierce low drive after he combined well with Harry Crawford.

However, it wasn’t long before the visitors equalised as just minutes later it was Williams again to the fore as he swung in a wickedly curling free-kick which eluded everyone and found the corner of the net and ensured Kings were level at the break.

The second period started badly for the visitors as, once again, their seemingly routine vulnerability from corners was exposed to their detriment. This time Cray captain Dean Beckwith was the beneficiary as he acrobatically swept home a loose ball after the away side failed to clear.

To their credit, Langley reacted positively to the setback and driven forward by captain Roddy Collins they launched a wave of enterprising attacks, but all too often a lack of composure or quality in the final third thwarted their endeavours.

One such attack, however, generated a pivotal moment in the match when Arel Amu broke clear of the defence only to be hauled down by the formidable Richie Danquah.

With Alfie Marriott’s harsh dismissal against Farnborough fresh in the memory, this looked a clear denial of a goal scoring opportunity. Unfortunately for Kings, the referee took a far more lenient view than the official who sent off their goalkeeper previously, issuing only a caution, much to the chagrin of the travelling faithful and to the huge relief of Danquah.

Kings battled to the end but a stubborn home defence in which, ironically, Danquah was immense, was in no mood to surrender their advantage and were quick to counter the threat of danger.

Two more goals to the hosts in added time was a cruel twist of the knife that Kings didn’t deserve.

First, man of the match Chris Dickson struck a ferocious volley into the top corner, followed by a deftly adept chip from substitute Daniel Uchechi to complete the visitors’ misery.

Kings’ focus now returns to turning their Southern League Premier South fortunes around and on Saturday they travel to the side directly above them in the relegation zone, Wimborne Town.