Maidstone United manager Craig Fagan critical of second-half performance in 2-1 defeat by Truro City

Craig Fagan said Maidstone need to get back to being a team after their home defeat by Truro on Saturday.

Nana Boateng’s penalty gave United a half-time lead but they lost their way after the break and were beaten 2-1.

The Stones remain top of National League South but now only on goal difference after Dagenham beat Hampton & Richmond 1-0.

Boss Fagan felt the hosts were too passive in the second half, instead of pushing for a second goal, and saw too many playing as individuals.

It’s been a frustrating couple of weeks with back-to-back league defeats, either side of an FA Cup exit against lower-league Cray, and Maidstone must rediscover their early-season ways.

“We need to get better in terms of winning the game, go and be positive, go and get the second goal,” said Fagan.

“We’ve had chances, too, chances to slide players in but then players are taking too many touches, thinking about themselves.

“They’ve had praise this season but we need to get back to being a team and not about individual accolades and individual praise because you end up being a team that loses loads of games.

“We need to get back to us, determination to keep the ball out of the net, determination to keep the ball, keep the ball away from their defenders and be more physical in terms of doing that.

“We need to run forward and create space for your team-mates and in the second half we didn’t do that.

“It was kind of like, just do enough, and then once they scored the first, I knew we might be in trouble.”

Report: Maidstone 1-2 Truro

Truro eventually wore down Maidstone as Jack Stretton scored twice in four minutes late in the second half.

Stan Leech hit the post and George Fowler was denied on the line as the hosts chased a point at the death.

Uni