Maidstone United head coach Hakan Hayrettin was a discouraged man this week when as his side crashed out of the BUILDBASE FA Trophy to National League Stockport County.

Speaking after Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at the Gallagher Stadium, the coach told us, “We’ve got to be honest with ourselves and they were better than us in a lot of areas and deserve to be in the Semi Final, but as the game went on, I began to see more of our players start limping which wasn’t good!”

“It was a big mistake that cost us on Tuesday right at the start of the second half – a big part of it is asking players to come in who haven’t played for weeks and others are playing when they’re carrying injuries where they usually would be because we haven’t got the numbers – we’re depleted, we’re fighting – and do you know what? The Club’s had a good Cup run; the boys have had a good run, but we’ve got to put it to bed now and look forward to Solihull Moors on Saturday!”

“We’ve had a great run in the Trophy, now we must concentrate on staying in the League. I can understand the supporters not waiting until the final whistle, people pay good money to come and support the team which even on Tuesday was fantastic and things like that (fans leaving early) are going to happen until we are able to turn things around and we come out the other end.”

“But that’s normal at any level of football and we’ve now got to focus on Saturday with a depleted squad – of up to eleven players out! We’ve a lot of players out – that’s no excuse as we’ve got to be upbeat, we came into work with smiles on our faces and we’ll pick the players up and go to work again – it’s no different at any football club especially at home when no-one likes to lose especially the way we lost on Tuesday…”

The coach was then asked about the turbulent season that the Stones are currently enduring. “I can’t comment on what’s happened before I joined the Football Club,” he said, “but what I can say is that we’re all working very very hard to turn things around or to the best of our ability. What’s gone is gone!”

“Two different voices; two different voices and now they’ve had a third one come in – it’s not easy on the players either after the Club has made the decision to do what it’s done three times now this season. We’ve come in now – and I have to say this – this is a fantastic football club and I’ve said it before with fantastic support and we’re desperate to give them something back as soon as we can!”

Looking ahead to Saturday tea-time’s televised kick off against surprise pace setters Solihull Moors, Hayrettin said, “Tim (Flowers) has done a great job up there – I think that he’s had a look at what he’s got and brought players in the way he wants to play – he takes the responsibilities away from his players in certain areas and they play to their strengths. And fair play to them…”

“Every game that we play now are six pointers. When we came to the club, we knew the challenge that laid in front of us and we knew how difficult it was going to be – and nothing’s changed and we’ve just got to keep going and keep the faith; we’ve got to make sure that the players keep the faith and we’ve got to keep going!”

“I was under no pressure at Braintree and built a good team, brought some good players in but I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here! The Chairman’s a personal friend of mine at Braintree as are the people down there – but this is an unbelievable place and football club and appreciation is something that we need and is a big word and is something that we need down here because sometimes and this is from my own experience playing in front of 2,500 or 3,000 people every weekend you don’t perform to your abilities, you’ll be playing for the Dog & Duck, it makes you realise and they’ve got to realise what kind of a football club they’re playing for which was the biggest pull for and has to be for them as well as we take the fight onto the next level.”