Stuart Maynard conceded his side gave Boreham Wood too much of a head start and that his side's fightback was a case of too little, too late.
The Stones found themselves two goals down for the second successive week against Luke Garrard's side – and it got worse when the Wood scored a third in the FA Cup Fourth Qualifying Round tie at Meadow Park.
It looked game over when Cameron Coxe made it three on 66 minutes but, in a madcap last 20 minutes, Olofela Olomola scored twice, Simeon Akinola got his second off the bench in as many games and the two Dannys, Newton and Elliott, scored for the home side to make it 5-3.
The Stones pegged it back to 4-3 at one stage but the damage had already been done.
"I thought after 20 minutes we just weren't good enough," said Maynard. "And I mean all of us as we are all in it together as a management team and the players. We weren't good enough. We were sloppy, we made an error for the first goal and then we try and make it up. We've done it too much lately and it costs you when you go one nil down you've got to regroup, you've got to be composed and we weren't composed enough.
"We went and give away another goal and when you're two nil down, you started to chase the game. The only positive was the fans who came out in their numbers. They're unbelievable – it's just really disappointing that we couldn't give them something. We scored three goals on the road, but that's the first time we've not put in a performance level that's been good enough. We need to go away and we need to try and make sure that we work on cutting the errors out of the game. It's something that we will go away and we'll look at.
"It's a game you've got to write off now which is horrible. I'm devastated because the cup means so much to fans and the club and financially. It was something this summer that we talked about a lot and we wanted to have a good cup run. It was frustrating but there's nothing that we can do now. We've got to go away and plan for Dorking because that was quite an uncharacteristic performance."
Maynard feels clean sheets are the bedrock of any good team and only Boreham Wood, York City and Southend United have conceded fewer goals in the National League this season than the Stones. So to concede five in one game when they have only shipped 13 in as many games came as a surprise to the manager.
"It's disappointing," he said. "I never saw that happening this season, but it does show the quality in this league that it can happen. I feel we were sloppy and not quite on it. We were sloppy in and out of possession, but we've got to go again. We've got to keep being positive, we've got work to do on the training ground. It's so frustrating this type of performance has happened in the FA Cup."
* Pictures by Darren Campbell