by Craig Tucker

Jay Saunders is ready to bring in new players to kickstart Maidstone’s season.

The Stones manager invited a centre-half and a winger to training on Thursday and has warned his squad to raise their game after two defeats in three league matches.

Saunders said: “I’m looking at a couple of players and if I think they will improve us, we’ll look to bring them in.

“We’ve been missing three wide players in Sam Bewick (suspended), Alex Flisher and Ian Draycott (both ankle injuries) but we should be doing better.

“The lads were buzzing and playing well in pre-season but three or four of them just aren’t doing it at the moment."

Saunders is under pressure to win promotion this season and is hurting after the slow start.

He added: “It ruins your week when we lose but we’re working hard to put things right.

“The league isn’t won in the first week of the season. I’m confident we’ll be fine when we’ve got our strongest XI on the park.

“We can cope with missing one player in each position but missing three wide men when you’re a side which looks to get good deliveries into the box has hit us.”

Assistant manager Steve Ward could make his first start for Maidstone against Corinthian-Casuals at the Gallagher Stadium on Saturday with Saunders keen to shore up his nervous defence.

The Stones boss said: “We can’t look at Wardy as the long-term answer because he’s 41 but he has loads of experience and is still a quality player.”

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