Hakan Hayrettin is convinced Maidstone are in a better place this year.

United have seen some big names depart, including George Porter, Saidou Khan, Justin Amaluzor and Scott Rendell.

Any team at National South level would miss players of their quality but boss Hayrettin has recruited well.

It means he goes into the National South opener at home to Hemel Hempstead on Saturday in good spirits, despite losing new strikers Jack Barham and Reece Grant to knee injuries.

Hayrettin, who’s also signed the likes of Roarie Deacon and Regan Booty, said: “The most important thing is the league starts on Saturday, we’re at home, in front of our supporters, and we want to show them we’re ready.

“When you look at your squad, some you lose because they go to pastures new and some you decide aren’t right for you.

“That’s what’s happened but our recruitment’s been good.

“We’ve got a better group this season, we’ve got some good players in there.

“We just have to make sure we work hard, do the right things and we’re capable of doing well.

“I was happy with the squad last year, and we’ve lost some good players, but we’ve got good players in.

“It’s just about getting that understanding and sometimes it takes time to get the combinations going.

“I keep going back to it but we missed two weeks of training and three matches in pre-season due to Covid.

“It’s left us playing catch-up, and we still need to work on their patterns and getting a bit more understanding of each other, but we’ll be all right.”

Hayrettin, starting his second season in sole charge, is ready to mix things up to bring success to Maidstone.

That means making use of the Gallagher Stadium’s 3G pitch, as they did to good effect a number of times last season, while doing what’s necessary to win away.

Hayrettin has warned, though, that teams will raise their game coming to Maidstone.

“I want to play winning football, whatever that may mean,” said Hayrettin.

“We need to be prepared to play all styles, in all weathers, in all conditions, on all pitches.

“I’m always a great believer that you don’t fix something if it’s not broken but you’re going to have to make changes because of injuries and suspensions and things. We have to be able to mix it up.

“When people come to us it will be like playing at Wembley for them, with the big crowd and they’re playing on a carpet.

“People say Maidstone have got the advantage but I don’t see it that way because when teams come to us, it’s probably their biggest game of the
season.

“There are clubs with bigger budgets but the owners set their sights on targets and rightly so because we’re a big club.

“Last season we had games in hand to go second.

“For me the only blot on the copybook was the last two games, Braintree and the FA Trophy at Hornchurch.

“People remember them because they were the last two games but that’s gone and we’ve got to look forward with our new squad and our new team. We’re all good.”

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