Simon Walton has John Still’s daughter to thank for his role in Maidstone’s new management team.

Still offered Walton a player-coach role having been impressed by his work as caretaker boss.

He told how his daughter pointed him in the direction of Walton’s post-match interviews on the internet.

Still liked what he saw, did his homework on the former Leeds midfielder and thrashed out a deal to join him and head coach Hakan Hayrettin when they met last week.

He said: “Why Simon? He took over at a very difficult time.

“I know him perhaps a little better than he thinks I know him as well.

“I actually think he has all the makings of a good manager if he wants to go into that side of it and I thought it was the right thing to bring him in with us.

“He’s still going to play, if we require him to play, but I still want him to be a big thing in here.

“What made up my mind that it was the right thing to do?

“I’m the worst person with phones you’ve ever known, email and all that stuff, but one of my daughters, she always looks up what’s happening.

“So when I was coming here, she said ‘look at this man who’s doing the interview’ and it was Simon.

“He spoke sense and with passion and I just thought, ‘yeah, that’ll work for me as long as it works for him’.

“If he wasn’t right he wouldn’t be here, he’d be a player, but he is right.

“It’s not important you like people you work with because people are there to do a job, but from talking to him the other day and working with him on the first day, I think he’s one of us.

“So when someone comes up and puts the old hand on my shoulder one day and goes, ‘you’ve done your bit, off you go’, hopefully he will become confident enough in what he does that he thinks he can take over and Hakan can shout and holler from the side!”

Hayrettin was assistant manager to Still when Luton won the Conference in 2014.

The 48-year-old left his job as Braintree manager to link up with his old boss.

Still said: “Hak played for me and he’s worked for me. I would have loved him to have taken over at Luton when I was there. I think he was ready.

“He didn’t get the job and I already had staff that I couldn’t do too much about when I went back to Dagenham but I brought him in and he was head of recruitment for me there.

“He was a good player, he’s a very good coach, he’s a good friend and he’s a vital part of how I do things because he believes in it 100% as well.”