Royston Town manager Steve Castle said the win over Stratford Town in the FA Trophy was worth much more than passage into the first round.
Goals from Matt Bateman and Harry Draper gave the Crows a 2-1 win and set up a home tie with Isthmian League Premier Division high flyers Kingstonian.
Speaking on the club's website, Castle said: "The last few weeks have been tough. We’ve had a lot of travelling midweek which is always a killer and faced some very good opposition.
"At times, we have more than matched our opponents but only for about 20 minutes, or possibly 35, 40 at a time but never for the duration of a 90-minute game.
"What I do know is that the players worked their socks off on Saturday to achieve the result. Our performance levels throughout the game were high and I feel that the consistency that we are looking for was much more evident."
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