MAIDSTONE United’s players have agreed to take a 50 per cent wage cut across the board.

The move comes as the squad attempt to head off criticism, following a run of five straight defeats that has seen them knocked out of two cup competitions and plunge to second from bottom in the Kent League table.

A crisis meeting was held on Wednesday night, with manager Lloyd Hume and his assistant Alan Walker proposing a 50 per cent wage cut for the next five games.

“We want to be absolutely clear that we (Hume and Walker) made this decision,” said Hume.

“We had a meeting with the chairman (Paul Bowden Brown) on Saturday evening. He has been fully supportive of myself and Alan through some difficult times and we said we wanted to make a gesture because of the way we’d been performing.

“He didn’t ask us to do it. Our attitude is that we’re being paid to do a job and that we don’t feel we’re doing it.”