Maidstone United manager George Elokobi on his side’s 1-1 draw at Hemel Hempstead on the opening day of the National League South season

George Elokobi took plenty of encouragement from Maidstone’s opening-day draw at Hemel Hempstead.

The Stones boss described his new-look side as “tremendous” following the 1-1 National League South draw at Vauxhall Road on Saturday.

Dajon Golding, one of nine debutants in the starting XI, gave Maidstone a half-time lead, but the Tudors snatched a point when Millar Matthews-Lewis struck in added time.

“I’m really proud of the players for their efforts, their commitment, their quality,” said Elokobi.

“The intensity was right where we wanted it to be.

“We knew in the second half they were going to push us back but the players were superb and it’s always good for us to put some points on the board in the first game of the season.

“It was one point today, away from home, so there are lots of positives to take.

“I felt positive going into the game in terms of the work we’ve done throughout the last six weeks, trying to make sure the team gels and plays as a team, and we saw that.

“It was a much improved performance from last week (2-0 friendly defeat at Cray Wanderers).

“There’s still work to be done behind closed doors in terms of where we need to be.

“However, it was nice to see the players go out there and play with lots of freedom and enjoyment.

“They understand the structure, in and out of possession, what our principles are, and they operate by those principles.

“But, also, we like to give them freedom to show their creativity and we saw lots of that in the first half and some in the second half.

“I thought we dominated the game, I thought we dominated the central areas and after 15 minutes of the second half we could have been 2-0 up.

“But when you don’t take those chances, it may just come down to small details, which