The wait is almost over as Maidstone United bid to return to the National League after a two-year absence.
United visit Boreham Wood in the National League South play-off final on Sunday (12.30pm).
It’s a fortnight since they won their semi-final at Eastbourne thanks to a 90th-minute strike from Aaron Blair.
The break has given Maidstone time to prepare and hopefully get injured players back to fitness as George Elokobi looks to clinch the first promotion of his managerial career.
Elokobi stayed calm amid a slow start to the season that saw United win just one of their first seven games.
It was doom and gloom back in September but an 18-match unbeaten run propelled them up the table and left them in title contention around the turn of the year.
They ended up in the play-offs, winning 2-0 at Worthing and 2-1 at Eastbourne to set up a final against Boreham Wood, where they’ll be backed by 1,000 away fans in a sell-out crowd.
“It’s a long season,” said Elokobi.
“It’s a marathon. You don’t win the league in September or you don’t lose the league in September.
“You don’t get relegated in September, you don’t get promoted in September. It’s month by month.
“We know what points tally we wanted to acquire at the football club, we knew how many goals we wanted to score, we knew how many clean sheets we set the boys for a target.
“When Alexis Andre Jr came here, I told him minimum 20 clean sheets.
“All the defenders, they knew.
“I told them, ‘We’re going to get to work, you’re going to be hurting but when it clicks you’re going to have the best defensive record in this league’.
Stones hero Worgan on 2016 play-off triumph
‘We just find belief in the littlest things’
“Offensively, I’ve got Craig Fagan who takes care of that
Read more on kentonline.co.uk
kentonline.co.uk
