George Elokobi praised his young midfielders after Maidstone’s 1-1 draw with Braintree on Tuesday night.

Hometown trio Bivesh Gurung, Riley Court and Perri Iandolo held their own in the middle of the park.

It was a tough game to come into but they let nobody down as United picked up a point after successive National League South defeats.

Mo Faal gave Maidstone a half-time lead but Braintree levelled after the break.

“I can’t fault our players today,” said manager Elokobi, who now turns his attention to this weekend’s FA Cup fourth-round tie at Ipswich.

“Braintree are a good side and they work exceptionally hard and are well drilled so you’re always going to be up against it.

“I’m exceptionally proud of our boys given the circumstances, given what’s coming on Saturday, so they’ve come out today and given their all for us.

“I’m exceptionally proud of our players, especially the young ones, Perri, Bivesh and young Riley, to ensure they kept that midfield at bay for us.

“It’s all about learning, being ready so when you’re called upon you can showcase yourself.

“It was good to give them some minutes today and we’ve got to make sure we look after them.

Report: Maidstone 1-1 Braintree

“If their opportunity comes for them to play here, they will. Some of them have taken that today.

“They’re going to learn. Were they perfect? No, they weren’t but they gave us their all and we’ll keep helping them progress and develop.

“Their game understanding, tactically, positional sense - we’ll keep helping them with that.”

Elokobi gave a debut to Manny Duku, his new signing from Gibraltan club Manchester 62, as a second-half substitute.

He potentially solves a striker shortage at Ipswich, with the manager pleased to get a deal over the line after toing and froing with the English and Gibraltan FAs to secure clearance.

Elokobi said: “I spoke to Manny in the summer and then he wanted to play abroad and he’s gone to Gibraltar.

“He’s returned now and once we heard he was available, he knew what environment he was going to be coming into because we had the conversation in the summer.

“All credit to our owners, they’ve gone out and tried to get this deal over the line.

“Big credit to Mr Ian Tucker (club secretary) and my director of football, Mr Bill Williams.

“They haven’t slept for the last seven days I think to make sure we chase both FAs to ensure clearance was done.”