Bearsted target record home crowd for pre-season friendly against Maidstone United

Bearsted are hoping to attract a record crowd to their pre-season friendly against neighbours Maidstone.

The sides meet on Saturday (1pm) with the fixture arranged off the back of United training at the Bears’ Honey Lane ground before last season’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at Coventry.

Stones boss George Elokobi is set to take his first-team squad along for a game Bearsted have been looking forward to for months.

With Maidstone fans’ help, the Southern Counties East club are aiming to set a record attendance of more than 300.

Bears manager Kevin Stevens, who is also the groundsman at Honey Lane, was only too pleased to help Maidstone last season.

He said: “They contacted me last year about coming up here to play on grass to prepare for the Coventry game and did we want any money for it?

“I said do you know what, a friendly would be great.

“George straight away said we’ll do that and we’ve been looking forward to it ever since.

“It’s great of him to bring the first team along and we’re hoping to get our biggest-ever crowd.

“Someone said the other day it’s officially 276, so we’re hoping to break 300.

“I’m told it’s buzzing on social media and Maidstone fans have been talking about it, and obviously we’re relying on them.

“We have our core fans but with Maidstone’s following, we’re hoping a lot of them will come up.

“It would be great for our first pre-season friendly to get a crowd like that.”

The FA Cup training arrangement and subsequent friendly deal reinforced the good relationships the two clubs enjoy.

It goes beyond that, too, with former Bearsted head coach Billy Jones in charge of the post-16 academy at Maidstone.

Stevens said: “I have a good relationship with Billy and we’ve been talking recently about any academy