Pre-match concerns centred round the goalkeeping position with new signing Kacper Kurylowicz cup-tied and deputy Connor Coulson still returning from injury, but in the event the ever-willing clubman kept a clean sheet and pulled off some important saves when the match was in the balance.

It was the home side that made the early running, Kieran Turner testing the keeper with a shot that lacked power and a Louie Collier effort parried, while Henry Dudley rattled the bar with a fierce drive from the edge of the box at the quarter-way mark. BJ Christie tapped in the rebound, but was adjudged offside.

Coulson was full length to keep out a header minutes later, but Kings made the breakthrough shortly afterwards in bizarre circumstances.

A Luke Warner-Eley corner was headed over Weller into his own net by Reece Keating and Kings were on their way. However, Holland were far from done and on the cusp of half-time a Lindoe through ball cut through the defence, but Keating somehow steered the ball wide of the post.

It was an impetus they carried over to the second half and there was a huge let-off for Kings when Willoughby put the ball past the post when perfectly placed and then Milburn had a goal-bound shot deflected narrowly over the bar.

Just when an equaliser looked on the cards, a wayward header out of defence was seized upon by Kieran Turner and his thoughtful chip was headed home by Christie to give a nervous Kings a vital buffer.

Steve Heath sought to build on that by sending on the attacking duo of Edu and Jez Luwero for the midfield pairing of Dudley and Hanson and it was then that Connor Coulson made a match-turning, point-blank save to stake a claim for Man of the Match. It was felt that the next goal would be vital as a two-goal cushion was possibly not enough to take a match that held the promise of more goals to come.

That promise was to be fulfilled, but few could have foreseen the outcome of the next thirteen minutes.

Having beaten the offside trap to steer the ball over the bar, BJ Christie atoned by intercepting a throw-in to give Louie Collier a square pass which he lashed home from the edge of the box.

The striker had had a reasonably quiet afternoon until then, but that goal seemed to light the afterburners and he needed no assistance two minutes later when he collected the ball wide right and cut in to dazzle the defender with his footwork and beat Weller from an acute angle.

Holland had seen a game that could have gone either way snatched from them in the space of fifteen minutes, but Collier was not finished yet and with four minutes of normal time to go he completed his hat-trick by cutting in, this time from the left, to drill a low shot past a bemused defence that had, by now, practically fallen apart.

So, onto the next round where the opponents will be old local rivals, Harpenden Town, a home tie on Saturday November 21!