Maidstone United co-owner Terry Casey on 10 years of the Gallagher Stadium

Co-owner Terry Casey says he wouldn’t change a thing as Maidstone celebrate a decade at the Gallagher Stadium.

It’s 10 years today since the ground - built at a cost of £2.9million - opened with a high-profile friendly against Brighton on July 14, 2012.

A lot has changed in the intervening years, with a £500,000 main stand extension and the construction of the £750,000 Genco Stand boosting capacity from 2,226 to 4,200.

On the pitch there have been four promotions, including two league titles, and a relegation, along with some glorious FA Cup memories.

Building the stadium, and returning Maidstone to the County Town after 24 years away, was the “absolute No.1 priority” when Casey and Oliver Ash bought the club.

“It’s been an exciting journey, 10 years of lots of emotions, lots of ups and downs, and I don’t think I’d change one bit of it,” said Casey.

“As a club and as a business, we’ve done a lot of things well and a lot of things right.

“The evidence is we hit rock-bottom in the National League and bounced back a couple of years later.

“That shows we’ve got substance to us, a lot of a backbone and a terrific spirit at the club.

“There was no point Oliver and I buying the club, for whatever it was, if we weren’t going to build the ground.

“There was no point owning a football club that’s going to be playing 20 or 30 miles from its home town.

“That was the major consideration, would Oliver and I be able to fund it and work on it and ensure the team came back to the town?

“That was the absolute No.1 priority. We had to bring it back to Maidstone, or there was no point buying the club.”

Planning permission to build on Ministry of Defence land at James Whatman Way had been secured in 2004, six years before Casey and Ash’s