Concentration is the name of the game for George Elokobi as he looks to stop Maidstone conceding sloppy goals.

Boss Elokobi is concerned with the number of times his team have conceded from restarts.

It happened again last weekend as Chesham scored a 96th-minute equaliser in a 2-2 draw, denying the Stones their first home league win of the season.

Late goals from Aaron Blair and Shaq Coulthirst put Maidstone in front, having trailed at the break, but they couldn’t hold on.

Defending set-pieces is an area the Stones are working hard on and Elokobi hopes their efforts pay off.

He said: “There’s plenty of pluses in the last three games but the things you look for as a management team are those small details and making sure you get those right.

“Our concentration levels at times can be better and I think in key moments in games they haven’t been quite there.

“We need to review that with our squad and do a lot of work on the training ground because we’ve conceded a lot from restarts.

“It’s not about skill, we have to be resilient in those moments.

“As a unit we have to see out the first phase and if we don’t, can we concentrate to see out the second and third phase?

“At times we’ve seen out the first phase and not the second phase and then on Saturday we didn’t deal with the first phase or the second phase and it’s ended up in the net.

“This is where I’m going with concentration, it’s the desire, the determination not to concede, making sure everyone is communicating and switched on.

“It’s helping your team-mate out, not that they don’t but we need to do that more.

“We need to be more ruthless in those moments and make sure we defend fairly, not giving away fouls or penalties, just make sure we win those first and second phases.

“Restarts can win you games but they can also lose you games or cost you two points, as we saw on Saturday.”

Maidstone are 16th after nine games of the National League South season and visit Herne Bay in the FA Cup third qualifying round tomorrow.

They’ve shown at times what they’re capable of, with performances at Boreham Wood and Enfield in particular pleasing the manager, along with the second half at St Albans.

But, as one of the promotion favourites, they’ve still to hit their stride.

Injuries to key men haven’t helped while in the past couple of weeks Elokobi has signed midfielders Antony Papadopoulos and Tayt Trusty plus big forward Harry Lodovica in a bid to change their fortunes.

“Could things be better? Yes, they could,” said Elokobi.

“We’re trying to tweak one or two things to help the squad balance itself. We’re leaving no stone unturned.

“Could the results have been better? Yes, but we have to be realistic in terms of the changes we’ve made at the football club with all the outgoings and incomings.

“Some have settled, some haven’t quite settled as much as we’d have liked, but it’s our job to get that balance.

“You always have reasons but there are no excuses.

“The squad that’s available, have they performed in the best way possible individually, collectively and as units?

“You have to look at all of those in detail.

“We’ve seen a lot in the first nine league games and that’s why you’ve started seeing a few changes.”

Elokobi suspected he would have to add to his squad after the early weeks of campaign.

He added: “That’s why I always said about having a set number of players to start the season, to leave room for flexibility within the squad to make sure we can adapt our style of play.

“Teams come here with a game plan, a strategy, and it’s up to us to combat that and find solutions for the problems they pose.

“We’re getting there slowly.

“I’d love us to get straight in there but it’s taking a bit of time.

“Going forward, I’d love to see us dominating games in the first half and the second half.

“Let’s not leave it till the second half.

“We’ve been seeing a lot of positive performances in the second half of games and it’s for us as a management team to keep working to ensure we dominate games and territory in the first half and also the second half.

“If we do that, the victories will come but we need to get the basics right first.”