Maidstone United defender Joe Ellul has been named National League South player-of-the-month.

Ellul, 33, was part of a Stones defence who conceded only two goals in five league games during January.

It’s the latest accolade for the popular centre-half, who signed a new contract last week, having won back-to-back player-of-the-month awards from Stones fans.

Maidstone haven’t lost a league game this season with Ellul in the side and while he appreciates the personal awards, he’d swap them all for team glory.

“It’s not something you often see, a centre-half winning player-of-the-month from the league,” said Ellul.

“It’s a massive boost for me to be winning an award like that.

“It’s a big award in non-league, it’s beautiful, it’s lovely, it will look nice on my side indoors, but it doesn’t win us anything as a team.

“I’ll take it, I’m happy with it, I’m grateful that I won it, but I’d trade it all in to lift the league trophy at the end of the season.”

Stones boss Hakan Hayrettin, who was named manager-of-the-month for December, said: “I think our goals against record (just 21 conceded) states that since Joe came back from injury, he’s been immense for us and he deserves this award."

Maidstone are second in the table, three points behind league leaders Dorking, after extending their unbeaten run to 12 games with a 2-1 victory over Bath on Saturday.