Maidstone United returned to winning ways with victory against in form Welling United leaving Hakan Hayrettin delighted.

First team coach Hakan Hayrettin got just what he wanted from his team who bounced back from four consecutive defeats with a well deserved victory. “I am delighted.” he said. “I wanted a response. We got a response.

“They came and made a game of it. It was nervous, tense but when we got the first goal we opened up so I was really pleased about that.”

One week earlier at Weymouth, Maidstone capitulated so the bounce back was hugely satisfying for Hayrettin. “I’m going to have a nice glass of red tonight because when you lose in the manner that we lost last week, it’s a helluva long way to come home on the coach.” he explained. “John (Still, Director of Football) wasn’t there. John was out looking at a player and I told him about it.

“We have this saying ‘never too high, never too low’. We hit rock bottom last week because I didn’t expect that from a group of players to crumble in the way we did but to see the reaction in training this week was good and encouraging.”

Unusually, Still was not in the dugout as Hayrettin explained “The Director of Football was up in the stand today. It was a master-stroke with what he can see up there which worked immensely well.”

During the week, and before the game Hayrettin confirmed that the management team have been working hard to lift the team. “We said all along that if you’re going to make a mistake, make a mistake but show the supporters that you care.

“We don’t want the season to be pinned on mistakes. Show them that you’re positive. That was the message that we gave them all week and that’s what we good. The movement was great up front. I think Max Watters has done ever so well. You can see what he’s capable of. I’m thankful to Darren Moore (manager of Doncaster Rovers) for loaning him to me.

“It was good to see players that weren’t playing coming on to the pitch to support each other. That’s very important to me. Team spirit is very important.”

Victory for the Stones took them to two places and five points away from the play-offs but with two games in hand, they are right back in the mix. Hayrettin said “We’ve identified x amount of points from a group of games that we’ve got and we’ve got the first three points and we’ve to go to the next one now, weather permitting.”

Picture supplied by Dave Budden.