No one knows the size of the task facing Maidstone at Notts County better than Regan Booty.

Midfielder Booty returns to his old club tonight as United take on the National League leaders at Meadow Lane.

The Yorkshireman spent the 2019/20 campaign with the Magpies after leaving Huddersfield.

He played a key role in the first half of the season before a back injury ruled him out of their run to the play-off final.

County are top of the table after winning eight of their past nine games and home gates this season average almost 7,500.

They’re desperate to get back to the Football League and a big crowd will expect nothing other than three points tonight.

It’s down to Maidstone, in the bottom four after seven games without a win, to stop them.

“I’m looking forward to it,” said Booty, with United looking to bounce back from last week’s FA Cup exit Needham Market.

“I know a few of the lads there still.

“It’s a great stadium, I enjoyed some good memories there, they’re doing really well.

“I always look out for my mates there and hope they do well but this week I’m hoping for the complete opposite.

“It would be nice to go there and get a result.

“It’ll be tough but we think we can, and we’ll go there with every intention to.

“They’re flying in the league, they’re top for a reason but who’s to say we won’t go there and get a result?

“An underdog has beaten us in the FA Cup and we’ll be big underdogs going there, so hopefully we can do the same.”

Booty left Huddersfield following their relegation from the Premier League for first-team football at Notts County.

It was a case of swapping one big club for another despite the Magpies, who reached the top flight under Neil Warnock, finding themselves in non-league.

“They’re a massive football club,” said Booty.

“The fans, and the way it’s run, they don’t deserve to be at this level, but that’s football at the end of the day.

“You’ve got Wrexham in this league, Chesterfield in this league and obviously Notts County, three massive clubs who probably have every right in terms of size and stature to be in League 1.

“I don’t think you realise the stature of a club until you get in somewhere like that and see the way everything’s done.

“Obviously, I came from Huddersfield, where I’d been since I was a kid, and it was similar.

“Support-wise, we had 10-11,000 at a couple of games and you’re averaging 6-7,000 in a league where some are getting 7-800.

“It’s massive for you, and I’m sure there’ll be a good turnout on Friday, but hopefully we can silence them.

“They’ve got big expectations and rightly so.

“They used to be in League 1, so they expect a lot, but when they're behind you they’re an unbelievable set of fans.

“I’ve seen videos from the Wrexham game (1-0 home win on October 4), the atmosphere was unbelievable.”

Booty is backing Maidstone to rediscover their early-season form.

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They were sitting pretty on 10 points from six games after back-to-back wins over the August bank holiday weekend.

But the Stones haven’t tasted victory since and know they need to improve.

“We can’t go hiding, we’ve said that as a group,” said Booty.

“We’ve got to hold ourselves accountable but we’ve got to stick together, dig deep and hopefully turn things around.

“Football’s a rollercoaster, and we experienced that last year.

“We’ve probably had too many downs already this year but we know as a group we’re strong enough to come out of that.

“We did it last year, but we’re playing against fitter, stronger, better teams, so we’ve got to pull ourselves together.

“We know in that changing room we’ve got enough if we’re all putting in sevens and eights out of 10 but we’re not doing that at the minute.”