Maidstone United manager Hakan Hayrettin on the 1-0 victory over Torquay United and how a 'brave' call to start Bivesh Gurung paid off

Hakan Hayrettin saw the Maidstone he knows in their late win over Torquay.

Manager Hayrettin told his side they owed supporters a performance after 4-2 and 5-0 defeats against Dorking and Wrexham.

And they obliged, battling away to stay in the game as visitors Torquay dominated the first half before emphatically turning the tables after the break.

Second-half pressure was rewarded when substitute James Alabi scored the only goal with three minutes left as Maidstone secured a seventh successive win over the Devon club.

“Today we saw the Maidstone that we know,” said Hayrettin, after a second win of the season moved his side up to 13th in the early National League table.

“Today we saw a Maidstone that’s willing to work hard and I’ve always said the most important thing is their understanding to work hard and then their ability will be secondary and we got that today.

“It was a game of two halves.

“They may have had the better of it in the first half, we were in the game, we did OK.

“But in the second half we turned the screw, I think we got the subs right and we deserved to win on that performance.

“For me I turned a negative into a positive at half-time.

“The positives were we’re still in the game and we haven’t conceded, now we’ve got to kick on and that’s what we did.

“We know how to win at home, with the support behind us, it was a tough ask for them to try and constrain the way we got the ball down and passed.

“I think the substitutions were the key.

"I brought James in for his experience and his knowledge.

“He’s still only 27, he’s been round the block, he knows he needs to work as hard as possible to stay in that team or work as hard as everybody else to be in contention.

“When I looked at the time I said you’re