Kingstonian assistant Mark Hams may have written off his side’s chances of FA Trophy success, but even he admitted stranger things have happened.
 

Boss Alan Dowson’s men lost 4-0 at bottom-club Thurrock on Saturday in a game the hosts dominated from start to finish.
 

It means Ks are not in the best of shape going into Saturday’s cup clash with Blue Square Premier high-flyers Dartford, who are fifth in
the top tier of non-League football.
 

Coupled with the fact the Kingsmeadow outfit have conceded 11 goals in their past two meetings with the Kent club and Hams, pictured right, knows his side have a mountain to climb.
 

“I think we have next to no chance.  Our record against them is not good,” he said.
 

“When you look at our last two league games against them they won 5-0 at their place, where Alan [Dowson] got sent to the stands, and we got whacked 6-2 at home.
 

“Alan joked the other day that since then they have got better and we have got worse.
 

“We’ve had them watched and they are a big and strong side that plays a rigid 4-4-2.
 

“It will be tough, but  stranger things have happened and it could all be different in a one-off game.”
 

Ks, in the top six prior to the weekend,  slipped to their fourth Ryman Premier League defeat of the season on Saturday at the division’s bottom club.
 

The result meant Ks dropped down to eighth in the table ahead of the mid-week matches and Hams admitted the reverse was no more than his side deserved.
 

“We got turned over in every department and it is not often you can say that,” he added.
 

“We were rubbish going forward, we were rubbish in midfield and rubbish at the back.
 

“Craig Mullen split his nose open trying to score just before half-time and if he had found the net it would have been 2-1 and maybe it would have been a different game.

“But they are a young and athletic team and deserved the win.”
 

* Kingstonian striker Wade Small returned from injury to fire Ks into the next round of the Ryman League Cup with the only goal in Tuesday’s 1-0 win at Harrow Borough.
 

New signing Lewis Taylor, who arrived on Monday, made his first start for his new club, while fellow new boy Havant & Waterlooville defender Jon MacDonald, has been given time to regain full fitness.