‘The players are digging in for me, which is always a good sign’

Manager Craig Fagan concentrated on the football as Maidstone finally recorded a league win over Dorking at the 12th attempt.

An outstanding performance was rewarded with a 3-2 away victory on Saturday as Fagan’s side moved up to fifth in the fledgling National League South table.

They came from a goal down to lead 3-1 through Tom Leahy, Ken Charles and Riley Court and saw out the closing minutes after conceding a late second.

With Stones assistant boss and former Dorking No.2 Rob Tuvey back at his old club, the stakes were always likely to be raised on the Meadowbank touchline.

But there was a game to win and Maidstone came out on top in the tactical battle to end a miserable run against Marc White’s men stretching back to their first meeting in 2019.

“There’s obviously one or two things that get said but that’s football, and I was just happy the way we performed,” said Fagan.

“I tried not to get involved but I think the performance deserved the win.

“We were organised, not in the sense that we were just sitting in and trying not to play.

“We were doing it for a reason, so we could counter-attack against their back three.

“That’s all we were trying to do, let them have the ball, they’ll lose it and then you’ve got Tom Leahy, Ken and Leone (Gravata) that can go and attack.

“If you get them three v three they’re going to cause problems, and you’ve got Riley behind them.

“I’m happy with the result and happy with the performance.

“The players are digging in for me, which is always a good sign.

“When it gets tough you can sometimes tell if the players are playing for the manager.

“It was mentioned today that if it does get tough, will they dig in? And I think we got the answer.”

Report: Dorking 2-3 Maidstone

Maidstone played like a team who know their manager has complete faith in them.

The manner in which they fought back after falling behind to a George Nikaj goal highlighted that.

Leahy levelled before half-time as the visitors took charge, and with Charles and Court opening up a two-goal cushion, Maidstone were on their way.

Josh Barrett’s 86th-minute strike gave Dorking hope but the Stones deserved their victory.

“I said to the players at half-time, ‘I believe in you’,” said Fagan.

“I’m stood on the sideline, saying ‘I believe in you, go and play'.

“I’m not stood there fearful that you’ve got the ball and you’re going to give it away.

“I’m proud that you’ve got the confidence to go and play, have more belief in yourselves that you can go and win the game.

“The faith I’ve got in them, they’re showing it in the way they’re buying into the training that myself and Rob are doing.

“So as long as they’re listening and learning and they want to get better, we’ll be OK.

“Squad-size, it’s going to be tough, but as long as we are in games, I feel we’ve got a threat to cause any team problems.”

Right-back Dermi Lusala, a summer signing from Dagenham, made his Maidstone debut as a late substitute after recovering from a pre-season hamstring injury.

He replaced Taylor Foran, who was out on his feet after a big shift, in a rejigged backline, while Fagan also introduced teenagers Mark Boruk and Farron Chime from the bench.

“We’ve had to change a couple at the end,” said Fagan.

“It was good to get Dermi on the pitch. I was trying to leave it as long as possible, where he’s just coming back from a hamstring injury.

“He has done some work on it but I didn’t want to force it and he ends up being out for a longer but Taylor had to come off, he was struggling a little bit, and this is what we do.

“(George) Fowler moves in and Dermi goes and sits in for him (at right-back) and we’re compact again.

“Again, the young players coming on, they were excellent.

“Farron was one of the ones who stood out in pre-season and deserves his minutes.”