As Maidstone United prepare for their FA Cup clash with Wrexham this weekend, Tom Mills believes this is his best season so far.

One of the quieter members of the team, Tom Mills has been a fixture at left-back since Maidstone returned to the town , making his 200th appearance for the club in September.

Since making his Stones debut aged 18 in 2010, the 22-year old has been getting recognition for his performances, highlighted by his select for an FA Representative XI, in a game that celebrated the 150th anniversary of both the FA and the Royal Engineers in November 2013.

He said “me and Alex Flisher have been here together for 5 years, from the Sittingbourne days when we were playing on boggy pitches. Now we get to play on the 3G, which is one of the best surfaces around. We’re getting crowds of nearly 2,000, so this is the best season I’ve experienced, by far.”

“Ever since we were getting 200-300 turning up, the crowd have always been behind me and get fully behind the team. Even when we are not doing too well, they are always there; they are so good. I’ve got older, experienced players around me, like Watty, who has played at the highest level, guiding me, and if there is a mistake, it’s always positive criticism.”

Unlike other members of the squad, Mills didn’t really have any early memories of the FA Cup, but did pick his most memorable moment from the Stones’ FA Trophy run last year.

He explained “when I was a kid, and first around the team, you always seemed to be on the bench for the cup games. But I do remember hitting a 30-yard screamer in the Whitehawk game, which was nice as it was so important. It made the score 2-2, and Ian Draycott scored the winner soon after, so that is probably my most memorable cup game.”

“The game here against Stevenage was unbelievable, and to be on live TV as well was just crazy. To get the early goal set us up, and to go on to win the game was amazing.”

“When we first turned up, we were just looking at where the cameras were, but once the game started, we forgot about them and got on with the job. When Frannie scored though, it was straight to the corners where the cameras were, and that was brilliant.”

“When we came out at Stevenage, the sight of the crowd was unbelievable. It seemed like we had more supporters than Stevenage and the noise was incredible.”

“You’re normally concentrating so much that you don’t notice the noise, but that day it came through to all of us. We were all talking about it when we went in from the warm-up and it gave us an unbelievable lift.”