Maidstone winger Christie Pattisson will always appreciate his manager’s honesty.

Stones boss Hakan Hayrettin didn’t mince his words after the Stones’ 5-0 defeat at Wrexham a fortnight ago.

The players took on board what he said and responded with back-to-back wins over the bank holiday weekend, beating Torquay 1-0 on Saturday and Aldershot 3-1 on Monday.

“We’re all grown men, we’d rather be told the truth and, truthfully, we weren’t good enough at Wrexham,” said Pattisson.

“We got our heads down on Monday, worked the whole week and put in performances against Torquay and Aldershot and got the six points.

“He knows we can do it, so him being honest, it works for us.

“We’re not the type of team that wants to make excuses.

“We went to Wrexham, we lost, and instead of stropping we all got to work.

“We can kick on from here and we can still do better.

"It’s a strong team, a good set of boys and we know if we out-work any team, we can definitely get results in this league.”

Maidstone, who visit Gateshead tomorrow, are settling into the National League and the same can be said of Pattisson on a personal level.

He produced his best performance so far in laying on goals for Jack Barham and Bivesh Gurung at Aldershot and now it’s about doing it consistently.

It’s a conversation he’s had with Hayrettin, who’s determined to get the best out of the winger.

Pattisson understands his boss’ frustration at times.

“Sometimes it takes me a while to get into a game and he’s hammering me,” said Pattisson.

“He’s trying to get me to be at my best and he does get it out of me.

"I think I showed it in the second half at Aldershot but I’ve just got to be consistent and be doing it from minute one.

"It’s not easy but he’s known me long enough to know I can do that week in, week out. If he keeps pushing me, he can definitely get it out of me.

“We’ve got some strong attackers out, so any opportunity I’m given, I want to prove myself and stay in that starting XI.

“He says when you’ve got that opportunity, you’ve got to keep your shirt and I’m trying my best to do that.”