RICHIE Wellens admitted a lacklustre performance from his Swindon Town side had all the hallmarks of an FA Cup upset as their hopes of a place in the third round were dashed by non-league side Woking the afternoon.

National League South side Woking claimed a 1-0 win at the Energy Check County Ground as Town’s absence from the glamour of the third-round draw came up short for the seventh season in succession.

Jake Hyde’s header early in the second half punished a Town display devoid of genuine quality, and post-match, boss Wellens conceded his troops simply did not offer enough of a threat to go through.

“It’s the FA Cup – over the years, we’ve seen it happen so many times where there is an FA Cup shock,” said Wellens.

“That game had many of the ingredients of what happens where you get an FA Cup shock.

“We were slightly below-par and played far too slow. We wanted to play in front of them too much and didn’t get down the sides of them.

“Their keeper pulled off a couple of good saves and they blocked one chance on the line too. We had so many corners, but did we look like scoring from a corner? Not really.

“I am really disappointed going from how well we started on Tuesday (against Stevenage in League Two) to starting so sloppily today when the big word of the week was attitude as we didn’t think Woking had as much ability as us, but they could still work has hard as us and run as hard and make that not be a factor.

“I don’t think we lacked for attitude – we wanted to win the game, but just the purposefulness in our passing was a little bit slow. We didn’t really move it quick enough to slice them open.”

Wellens admits the disappointment of missing out on a place in the FA Cup third round is a bitter pill to swallow.

The Town boss just hopes it now does not drain confidence from his side over the remainder of their League Two campaign.

Wellens said: “It hurts me massively. I have been involved with good cup runs and I can see what it can do for a club with momentum, and financially, it is huge.

“I am bitterly disappointed but now it means nothing.

“I am pretty angry, to be honest, but the main thing is that we don’t lack any confidence from today and get back on the training ground and prepare as best we can for Newport next weekend.”