Maidstone United boss George Elokobi and assistant Craig Fagan lift the lid on the double act that’s led them to the FA Cup fifth round and a trip to Coventry City

“I remember the first session - George came in and he kicked me up in the air.”

And that was it - the start of a great friendship between Maidstone boss George Elokobi and his No.2 Craig Fagan which these days can involve 2am phone calls.

That first meeting came on the training ground at Colchester, shortly after Elokobi arrived from non-league Dulwich.

Twenty years later they’ve masterminded United’s run to the FA Cup fifth round.

Fagan recalled the incident as the pair sat down with KentOnline in Elokobi’s office at the Gallagher Stadium.

He said: “I wasn’t happy at the time but after I was like, yeah, that’s a bit of me. I liked everything George was about.

“There was a difference in terms of backgrounds.

“George never had a lot living in Africa and I always understood that he’s had to fight for everything he’s got.

“I was similar in that I was never given anything.

“I was never given my place. I had to work hard through all the age groups at Birmingham to get my first pro contract.”

It’s that mutual work ethic that makes the Elokobi-Fagan relationship so effective.

They put everything they’ve got into bringing success to Maidstone.

“Even now we’re both hard-working, so that’s where the appreciation and understanding of each other is,” said Fagan.

“We’re in a job, we’re lucky to have a job, but we work hard at it. We’ve not got our feet up on the table.

“We don’t have a lot of staff, we muck in and get involved in everything and I think it marries well that we’re both like that.

“We bounce off each other and we want to improve, and we want to improve players.

“We see how people were with us when we were players in terms of coaches/mentors and we try and pass that on to the lads and be good around the place.”

Elokobi