Met Police manager Jim Cooper was left to rue his side's luck after they almost forced League One Crawley Town to an FA Cup replay before losing 2-1.
The Ryman League side - who play four divisions below Crawley - had seen goals from Josh Simpson and Billy Clarke all but put the Red Devils out of sight. But Alan Tait pulled a goal back eight minutes from time and nearly levelled when winger Howard Newton hit the post in added time.
"The width of a post was all that stood between us and a replay so I couldn't be prouder," Cooper said.
"If the match had gone on for another five minutes we maybe would have got a draw and a replay.
"We had a game plan and that was to attack more in the second half with our wingers and to a certain extent it worked.
"We've made something in the region of £30,000 from this FA Cup run and that amount of money can do wonders for a club of our size."
Crawley boss Richie Barker said: "Met Police pushed us all the way and in the end they gave us one hell of a fright towards the end.
"The first half was a bit of a non-entity and we had a lot of the ball. But they had a game plan which was to frustrate us and we didn't do enough when we had the ball.
"I've got to give Met Police a lot of credit because they've won four or five games to get here and played well.
"We can't take anything from this game really other than the win. I don't think any of our players covered themselves in glory."
