Maidstone have settled on a punishment for their late players as John Still and Hakan Hayrettin vow to keep being open with fans.

Their decision to go public on dropping Justin Amaluzor, Iffy Allen and Ibrahim Olutade in midweek drew plenty of support but also raised a few eyebrows from those who felt it should have stayed in-house.

Amaluzor scored the winner against Oxford City on his return to the side yesterday but the matter isn’t over yet.

Head of football Still said: “We’ll deal with it this coming week. We’ve already made a decision. We know what we’re doing.

“We discussed it with the captain and vice-captain, George Elokobi and Jake Cole, and have come to something that we’re going to do, because something’s going to be done.

“We might not do it until after the Tuesday game at Tonbridge but we’ll do it this week.”

Still defended the move to go public on axing the trio for Tuesday’s Kent Senior Cup tie against Dartford after they missed the team meeting.

He said: “If you make a decision, why not let people know the decision you’ve made?

“They’re paying public, they’re directors of the club, they’re your players.

“You let them know you’re not going to stand for people that can’t have the discipline that’s required to play for the club.

“They were late, they let the team down, they let us down, they let the supporters down, they let the club down, simple as that.

“They’ve got all day to get here but it’s important to say this, it wasn’t a one-off.

“If it’s a one-off you can say ‘well, everyone’s late’ but it wasn’t a one-off and if we don’t deal with it, we’re letting the other players down and the tail begins to wag the dog.”

Hayrettin added: “We spoke on the way home on Tuesday night and made a decision that it was in everybody's best interest to know the truth.

“We’re quite conscious of that, that we do our best to let the supporters know.

“There’s no smokescreen here, it is what it is.

• Maidstone United 1-0 Oxford City

“We need them to be behind us all the way, which they have been again. We’ve got nothing to hide.”

The management got a reaction from Amaluzor against Oxford as the winger capped an impressive performance with United’s second-half winner.

Hayrettin said: “We had no issues picking him and he worked ever so hard, with and without the ball, and he scored. He took his goal well.”

Victory keeps Maidstone eighth in National League South, four points off the play-offs.”

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