George Elokobi is putting pressure on himself to bring more success to Maidstone.

The Stones start the National League South campaign at St Albans on Saturday (3pm) with promotion firmly on their minds.

It’s the next step after their extraordinary run to the FA Cup fifth round and play-off semi-final appearance.

“What we did last season was amazing but that’s gone, that’s history and we all have to prove ourselves again,” said boss Elokobi.

“Not just myself and the management team but also the players and our fans as well, we have to go again.

“It’s about making sure we approach every day with the same respect and humility.

“I always put myself under pressure to be a better manager every single day. That’s what we do here.

“You have to put yourself under pressure. I hate being comfortable so, for me, it’s about making sure I do the job to the best of my ability and if doesn’t work, I know I’ve given it my all.

“It’s important in this industry you don’t get too high or too low but you have to put yourself under pressure because you want to win football matches for Maidstone United Football Club.

“I want to be successful. Are we going to win them all? No, but we can try.

“Our approach is positive, every single training session and every game we play.

“Everyone starts from zero points. At the end of the day, we know what our objectives are and we’ll take it one game at a time.

“It’s a long season and we want to be competitive.

“Like I’ve always stressed, you have to be competitive first and see where that takes you.

“We’re playing against very good sides in the National League South and it’ll be a tougher league this season, so it’s important we show respect to the other teams, which will do.”

Elokobi has made big changes to his squad over the summer - as shown by 11 summer signings - and may not be finished yet.

The Stones went close to promotion last season but felt they needed to rebuild for another push in 2024/25.

“Credit to the players that played for us last season that are not here now,” said Elokobi.

“Big respect to them for what they did and I wish them every bit of success.

“For me, it was about making sure we refresh the environment.

“By that, I mean look at the different units, the different departments and make sure we try and bring in some new players and help them.

“We looked at where we didn’t quite do well last season.

“We know those areas - I don’t want to give them out - but as a management team and a board we worked together to ensure we bring in the group of players we brought in and retained the ones we wanted to keep.

“It’s a different squad. No one knows if it’s a better squad.

“Will history repeat itself after having the best season in the club’s history last year?

“I don’t think anyone can take away from us what we did.

“So I’d say it’s a different group but we have to get this group to gel together as quickly as possible.

“Some might take a bit longer than others and we have to make sure we manage them right.

“But first we have to make sure we understand where they’ve come from, the environments they’ve been in before we signed them and then try to change one or two things and adapt them into our environment.

“Our environment is quite challenging and demanding.

“No disrespect to the environments they were in before but when players came in they realised straight away they had to be fitter.

“The boys who were here last season, they’ve had a taste of it and they knew for their skills or technique to shine, you’ve got to be fitter in possession and out of possession.

“We do a lot of work on patterns and our principles are fixed so we have to use those so our players start understanding as a group what’s required.

“Only time will tell us where we are in terms of the first 15 games.

“We’ll know what’s needed and what’s not after that.”

Elokobi is keeping his options open regarding the starting XI for St Albans.

He added: “There are always shirts up for grabs in this environment.

“It’s about making sure they put in the work every single day in training leading up to a game and we go from there.

“We pick the team based on what we’ve seen throughout the week, and also what sort of team we’re going to be coming up against will determine the personnel we deploy on the day.”