HOW much damage was caused by our FA Cup defeat against Darlington will be best judged by the way that we approach tonight's Division Three game at Lincoln City.

Obviously it was a massive disappointment on Saturday, but we've now got to pick ourselves up and get back to the kind of 'high' that was within the club before the game.

The feeling at training yesterday was good and the players know they didn't play as well as they can, but they gave it everything they had got.

They firmly believe, though, that with a little bit of luck we would still be in the Cup with at least a replay.

There was a little bit missing from our play on Saturday, but we had the lion's share of possession and we certainly had some good chances.

We were unlucky with the one Darlington cleared off the line in the first-half and then, of course, Scott Stamps had an effort hit the post.

But I must admit I got a feeling early on that it was going to be one of those games. They came here with their stall set out and played 4-5-1 trying to frustrate us and as it happened on the day we didn't quite have enough to beat them.

I'd be lying, though, if I didn't admit to the fact that losing all three strikers -- Colin Larkin, Ian Foster and Drewe Broughton -- from the last five or six games affected us.

But now, of course, it's how we react to the result.

Tonight at Lincoln will be a difficult game. They have been on a good run of late and it's going to be hard for us to bounce back.

But if we win, or get a draw, it will set us up nicely for the following two games that are both at home against Rushden & Diamonds and Luton Town.

With us being at Lincoln tonight it's always tricky having two consecutive away league games. We have won the one at Leyton Orient, so it would be nice to follow up with another victory.

It would certainly give us a tremendous boost for those two very difficult home games coming up against Rushden and Luton.

People ask me how I was affected by our FA Cup exit on Saturday and I've said that when we lost at Shrewsbury and Carlisle it was easy to get really down in the dumps and thinking where do we go from here.

But Saturday was nothing like that. It happens that you don't quite perform to your maximum, but nevertheless we had enough opportunities.

We also had a couple of new players on show in Bo Henriksen and Richie Appleby and it all takes time for things to settle.

So I wasn't too downhearted. I'll be more disappointed if we don't get a result tonight.

But I did say prior to Saturday's match that league form does not have anything to do with the FA Cup. To me it was not a massive surprise that the managed to beat us. They are above us in the Third Division and they had already beaten us in the league.

But, as I say, it was one of those frustrating occasions where there was 10 per cent missing from our play. If that had been there I'm sure we would have won comfortably.