Under-strength Torquay United out of FA Trophy

Having been knocked out of the FA Cup by AFC Totton in September, Torquay's focus is now solely on the league

Torquay United manager Paul Wotton says the club's injury problems contributed to their 2-0 FA Trophy loss at home to Maidstone United.

The Gulls saw the likes of Callum Dolan, Louis Dennis and Matt Worthington drop out from the previous week for the second-round tie and had just four substitutes.

Dan Hayfield hit the post early on for the Gulls, who started well, before Dajon Golding gave the Stones a 29th-minute lead.

Five minutes later, John Gilbert sealed victory after an incisive counter-attack.

Matt Jay came nearest to cutting the gap when he went close with 18 minutes to go.

"We need bodies back as soon as possible - squad-wise we're a bit low on numbers," Wotton told BBC Radio Devon.

"That's something we're going to have to work on and we are trying to address.

"You're having to put a centre-back up front because Sonny Fish got 65 minutes in [before going off], which was great.

"But it's far from ideal, although weirdly we had actually a few chances when we did that."

But Wotton says his side were not good enough for large spells of the tie as Torquay's cup exploits came to an end for another season.

"I thought for the first 25 minutes we were fantastic," he added.

"We've lost the game in the last 20 minutes of the first half, where I thought we took a backward step and Maidstone stepped on and pressed us and we couldn't work out that we needed to play much, much quicker.

"We played into their hands, the two goals we conceded, as any goal you concede, were really poor.

"In the second half we huffed and puffed, but didn't make their keeper make enough saves.

"Then we have a really good chance with a header that we should score and make a game of it, but it wasn't to be, so disappointing."