League quality just too much

Jay Saunders felt Maidstone panicked in their FA Cup defeat at Rochdale. The League 1 side salvaged a replay with the final kick at the Gallagher but showed their class in a 2- 0 victory at Spotland on Tuesday night. Hopes of an upset disappeared inside 22 minutes and boss Saunders said: “When I look back, I said it after we played them at home, I think that was probably our chance. “I thought here, on a big wide pitch, they started very well, moved the ball very well. “They’re a good side and they showed why they are where they are in League 1. “You’ve got to stay in it, try and frustrate them. I thought, second half, the one positive I’ll take is we got on the ball and started to pass it and when we did that we actually created a few half-chances. “But we didn’t do it enough and first half we couldn’t get Jamar (Loza) in the game, we couldn’t get it into Yemi (Odubade), we couldn’t get our wingers into the game. “I think we panicked a little bit. Maybe that was the speed they started at. That was a little bit disappointing but there you go, they’re a good side and we’ve got to move on.” Stones beat League 2 Stevenage in a first-round replay two years ago but Rochdale, 11th in League 1, were a different proposition. Saunders said: “We were 10 seconds away from going through in the first game but on that day I felt that was probably our best chance. “I think, against League 2 clubs you’ve possibly got a chance. League 1, I think they’ve just got that bit better quality and you could see that. “They’re a full-time club, two divisions higher. You can’t get frustrated when you see them moving the ball like that, you’ve got to expect it but you’ve got to try and stay in the game and that’s what we didn’t do. “If we’d stayed in it, then you can frustrate them, you start getting chances, but we didn’t do that and that was our undoing.”