Kneller disappointed with Bognor Regis Town’s FA Trophy exit at Hastings United

Manager Danny Hollands and No2 Ben Kneller have steered the Rocks to the top of the Isthmian South Central table with an unbeaten run in the first five games of the season.

And with an eye seemingly on maintaining the focus on the league, the duo decided to shuffle the pack in East Sussex with influential players such as Luke Pardoe, Kaya Tshaka and Lennie Smith left on the bench for this second qualifying round tie.

The home side were largely dominant in the first half and deservedly took the lead through the lively Warren Mfula on 22 minutes – and in the great scheme of things the Rocks were rather fortunate to go in at the break only trailing to a single strike.

But they emerged after the interval with a renewed purpose and soon managed to level things up at 1-1 through Jake Cope’s goal after 55 minutes.

With no further score during normal time, the tie at the Pilot Field went to penalties and the visitors suffered from 12 yards as they went out of the competition in a 6-5 spot-kick defeat.

Speaking to the club’s official YouTube channel after the encounter, assistant manager Kneller took a rounded view of the exit.

He said: “It is tricky – you want to come and get away unscathed and we have injury-wise but obviously we're not in the hat for the draw.

"We sat down with (club directors) Russ Chandler, Jack Pearce and Simon Cook in the week and they sort of understood where we want to be and what we want to do and to be in this competition was key and I do apologise to the fans because I'm sure they want a cup run.

“It’s a tricky place to come; you have got to come and adapt and maybe we haven’t adapted as well as maybe we could have done. We left a few out and unfortunately there is no cup draw for us."

Quizzed on whether the defeat meant the group could now concentrate on replicating their success to date in the league, Kneller remained philosophical, adding: “I think it's very important to have run in FA Cup and FA Trophy, both in monetary value and also for the fans.

"Fans want to have something to cheer about and I think we have done that for them in the league; so from our side of things, it's making sure we repay the faith that we get from behind the goal. And come Saturday at home to Harrow we see a wall of green behind the goal.”

One cup the Rocks are still in is the Sussex Senior Cup and they have been drawn at home to Worthing United in the second round.