Saints manager Steve Castle has described their 6-0 hammering at Woking in the FA Trophy as a "freak result".

St Albans City were dumped out of the competition by their Blue Square South rivals only a couple of weeks after beating them 1-0 and Castle was stunned after the setback.

Saturday's result was their heaviest defeat since last season's 10-0 thrashing by Hemel Hempstead Town in the Herts Charity Cup and the manager was keen to put the game behind his side.

Castle said: "It's a big blow for the football club, especially with the finance it could have brought us. We could have done with a cup run but it's still proved elusive to us which is disappointing. The second half was particularly disappointing.

"I would take it as a freak result. It certainly wouldn't have happened in the league. Woking had four shots and scored six goals so work that one out.

"We started like we did when we came here for the league game. I'm a little bit dumbstruck in some ways.

"I would love to have had a good cup run. I haven't had it with this team and it's very frustrating but we can't do anything about it now.

"I've said to the guys in there that they are the guys that performed very well at Woking and Braintree and Newport where I was very proud of the performance. We're due an off day and it happens. The important thing is not to dwell on it overly."

City found themselves chasing the game in the second half and Castle opted to push his team forward. But they paid the price as Woking caught them on the break and ended up with a flattering scoreline in a match which City started brightly.

Castle added: "Obviously there was an own goal to start off with and going in 2-0 down I still thought we were in it. I still thought that the next goal could win it and had we got the goal we would have put them on the back foot a little bit.

"Up until the goals went in there was a fair amount of anxiety about them. But as the goals went in they seemed to get better.

"It's tough because football is an emotional game and we all want to do well in cup runs, no more so than myself. It's a very tough one but we just have to take it on the chin and move on.

"My main thing really is that it's a cup tie. We tried to push things and whether you lose 2-0 or 6-0 you're still out of the cup."

The Saints stay on the road this weekend when they return to league action with a trip to Bromley.

Castle could hand Lamine Sagna his first start in attack and he is keen for his team to recapture the form which has helped them to eight points in their last four games. The manager said: "I just don't want any hangover at Bromley because it's the same group of lads that fought their way [to their current run of results] and really, with a couple more victories, could be back in the running. It's my job to be critical but also optimistic.

"They [Bromley] have improved quite a bit from last year. They have a couple of games in hand and if they won them then they would be in the play-off places. If we want to get into that position then these are the teams we need to beat.

"I think we play them twice in a couple of weeks and I'm expecting two even games. We need to make sure we get a positive result and get back to having a stingy defence again."