King's Lynn Town boss Gary Setchell believes his side's FA Vase exit at the hands of Gresley on Saturday gives his players no excuses in their quest to win the United Counties Premier League.

Last year's FA Vase semi-finalists were dumped out of the competition in the second round proper on Saturday thanks to goals from Richard Hanslow and Royce Turville but Setchell is now looking for his squad to put all their focus on winning the league.

'We had a tremendous run in the FA Cup but it hasn't happened to us in the Vase this season,' admitted the Linnets' chief. 'It gives us the chance to give all our attention to the league because our run in the Vase last year arguably cost us our chance of winning the league.

'We've got no excuses this year – we are not going to have the fixture backlog that we had last season. We can put all our focus on winning the league.'

Lynn were on top early on against the Midland Alliance Premier side but just after the half-hour mark the home side took the lead.

Dean Oliver put a great ball down the left for Richard Hanslow who then raced forward before cutting in to the area. Despite two of his colleagues calling for the ball in the middle the young striker saw his chance and struck a fine shot that flew under Lynn keeper Alex Street and into the far corner.

Lynn turned up the heat in the second half with Jamie Thurlbourne going close to finding an equaliser but in the absence of Jack Defty the visitors lacked a cutting edge.

Gresley weathered the storm and three minutes into injury time they sealed their passage into the next round. Oliver broke down the right flank before crossing for Turville to slam home and while Setchell admitted his side had their chances, the loss of Defty to injury was too much for his squad to overcome.

'It's disappointing because we would have liked to have got a result but we had a good run in the competition last season and you don't often do it two seasons in a row.

'We were unlucky in the draw and we lost one of our best players in the build-up. In the end we have gone down to a very good side. We played reasonably well – we really pushed on in the second but lacked a bit of a cutting edge in their penalty area. We did everything right in general play but when the ball came into the penalty area we didn't have that clinical edge. Gresley were the better side on the day and deserve their place in the next round.'

• Gresley: Hateley, Langford, Gough, Barrett, Nottingham, Spencer (Betteridge 22), Lyons, Jepson, Hanslow (Turville 87), Oliver, Goodfellow (Dillon 76). Subs not used: Barrow, Keeling.

• King's Lynn Town: Street, Bexfield (Coe 83), Yong, Watson (Fryatt 85), Buhlemann, Hughes, Spriggs, L Thurlbourne, Harris, Beaumont (White 70), J Thurlbourne. Subs not used: Wall, Hails.

• Referee: N Mason (Sheffield)

• Attendance: 419