Hakan Hayrettin felt Maidstone were in control against Welling last night.

The Stones trailed to Stefan Ilic’s early header but Scott Rendell levelled in the second half and Charlie Seaman scored an 85th-minute winner.

It’s the first time in six seasons that United have won their opening league game and boss Hayrettin felt they were good value for the National South points.

He said: “I’m very happy. I thought we were the better team.

“I thought even though they went 1-0 up we were in control and the team-talk at half-time was to continue doing what you’re doing, be patient, we’ll play the game in three 15-minute segments.

“The first 15 are vital, we’ve got to push them back, we actually thought at 70 minutes they’d get tired.

“Take nothing away from them, I thought they absolutely worked their socks off for their manager and their team and their goalkeeper was outstanding. If it wasn’t for him I think we’d have had more.

“Apart from the goal, did our goalkeeper really have a save to make? No.

“I was impressed by some of their players but from minute go until the 95th I thought we were in control.

“Obviously the last five or 10 minutes are going to be tough because they’re going to throw caution to the wind and put two up top but I thought we were the better team and I thought we deserved to win - by far.”

Rendell pounced on a mistake in the Welling defence to get off the mark for his new club as Maidstone levelled with just over an hour gone.

“Scotty’s tried and trusted,” said the Stones boss. “He’s got the T-shirt, he’s a great, great player to have in the changing room, his enthusiasm rubs off on others, his maturity, and he’s a leader.”

Seaman impressed all night, showing why Hayrettin wants to use the right-back higher up the pitch after bringing him back to Maidstone on a season-long loan from Doncaster Rovers.

Hayrettin was in with a shout of landing Seaman on a permanent deal after he was released by Bournemouth.

But while he ended up signing for Rovers, the League 1 outfit were happy to loan him out.

Hayrettin said: “I can’t deny anyone the right of signing for a professional football club and he’s gone to a good friend of mine, Darren Moore, who I played with, at Doncaster, but we’ve got him on a season-long loan.

“For him it’s about developing, I think he’s going to be a hell of a player if he keeps producing and working hard.

“A lot of people only see him at full-back but I see something different, I can see that he can play further up.

"People will think, well, why he’s converted a full-back into a winger?

“That’s because that’s my job, to identify things like that that.”

• Maidstone United 2-1 Welling United

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