Maidstone United may be looking to make history in the FA Cup against Coventry City tonight, but it wasn’t so long ago the club was forced to resign from the football league.

This season the Gallagher Stadium has been bouncing as George Elokobi’s men caused upsets against League Two Barrow and League One Stevenage, before heading to Championship high-flyers Ipswich for a boisterous 2-1 victory.

But 32 years ago things weren’t looking so good – the club had just two players on its books, no league to play in, and was crippled by debt.

Founded in 1897, the Stones played at the Athletic Ground in London Road for 90 years before the board sold it to property developers in 1988.

Despite gaining promotion to the Football League the following year, unsuccessful ground-shares and financial setbacks forced the club to fold in 1992.

Soon after, new chairman Paul Bowden-Brown helped create Maidstone Invicta, which was made up of the club’s youth team, and thus began a long trip through the county’s minor leagues. The club was eventually renamed Maidstone United again in 1997.

In the 1993/94 season, Maidstone joined the Kent County League Division Four and won the title at the first attempt.

Following a restructuring of the league they were promoted to Division Two and won the title again. They then spent three seasons in Division One until earning promotion to the Kent County League Premier Division thanks to the work of manager Jason Lillis.

In their second season in the Kent County League Premier Division, the Stones earned promotion after finishing as runners-up to Bearsted. In the 2001/02 season, the club returned to the Kent League and was playing its homes games at Central Park in Sittingbourne.

They finished the season as champions on the very last day of the season.

In 2002/03, Maidstone returned to the FA Cup where they defeated Ramsgate, Tonbridge Angels and Newport before losing to Boreham Wood in the 2nd Qualifying Round.

The promotion charge continued for the Stones, who made their way through the divisions, including the Ryman League Division One South and the Ryman League Premier Division.

In 2010, chairman Paul Bowden-Brown, who had taken over the club when they resigned from the football league, stepped down and new owners Oliver Ash and Terry Casey stepped in.

Sadly, that season the Stones were relegated for the first time in their history and returned to the Ryman League Division One South.

It wasn’t until 2012 when Maidstone moved back to its namesake town – having recently opened the £2.6 million Gallagher Stadium – after a long stint of ground sharing in Sittingbourne and Ashford.

Some 2,226 fans watched the team’s first game at the stadium against Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, July 14.

The club’s first season back home ended with promotion after a 3-0 victory against Faversham Town in the play-off final.

Maidstone missed out on a play-off place by two points at the end of 2013/14, but the following season made it to the second round proper of the FA Cup, beating League Two Stevenage Town in a first-round replay in front of BT Sport cameras and a packed crowd.

And things went from good to great when the club was promoted at the end of the season to the Vanarama National League South.

During the 2015/16 season, Maidstone finished third in the league and were promoted to the National League after a 2-2 draw against rivals Ebbsfleet led to a historic 4-3 penalty win.

The first season back in non-league’s top flight ended with a 14th place finish and the opening of the Genco Stand in March 2017, saw capacity rise to 4,200. Numbers were just shy of that when Crystal Palace arrived that summer for a five-year anniversary game.

After three years in the National League, it all came to an end in 2019 and the Stones wouldn’t be back until the 2022/23 season when they were crowned National League South (NLS) champions.

Sadly, it was a forgettable year for Maidstone United who were dumped back into the NLS after a miserable campaign.

Now, they sit sixth in the league table and have their eyes on the play-offs as well as making FA Cup history.

After the Ipswich win, manager George Elokobi said: “This is for Maidstone and it's the magic of the FA Cup. We had to believe.”

And while they may sit 95 places below their Championship hosts Coventry, thousands of fans will be believing they can go even further after their remarkable fall and rise over the last three decades.

Click here for where to watch Maidstone’s historic cup clash. The game will be aired on ITV4 and ITVX at 7.45pm.