Maidstone United manager George Elokobi tells of his respect for Dover Athletic before Kent derby at the Gallagher Stadium
Published: 06:41, 14 November 2023
Maidstone boss George Elokobi has nothing but respect for struggling Kent rivals Dover.
The sides meet at the Gallagher Stadium in National League South tonight needing points for different reasons.
United, occupying the final play-off spot, are looking to bounce back from Saturday’s 5-2 defeat at Hampton & Richmond.
Athletic, meanwhile, have won just once in 17 league games this season and that was back in August.
Mitch Brundle’s side, beaten 2-0 by leaders Yeovil at the weekend, have been in plenty of those games, as a record of eight draws shows.
So Maidstone, who’d gone 12 games without defeat in league and cup before losing to Hampton, are taking nothing for granted against a Whites outfit who are five points from safety.
“We disrespect no opposition,” said Elokobi. “You saw that last week when Eastbourne came to our place (2-0 win for the Stones).
“Dover are going to come to our place and they’re going to try to win the game, so we have to be on our A-game.
“We’ll be ready to give a good account of ourselves.
“We’ll review what happened against Hampton - we always do that. There’s no hiding place.
“We have to learn, we have to review and through visuals we learn a lot.
“We’ll also put on some sessions to make sure in those different scenarios the players know how to deal with things better.”
Maidstone were carrying a lengthy injury list at the weekend, with captain Gavin Hoyte and Liam Sole joining Reiss Greenidge, Conor Kelly, Chi Ezennolim and Harry Kyprianou in the stands.
Hoyte had gone off in the win over Eastbourne.
“We don’t know the extent of Gav’s injury yet,” said Elokobi on Saturday evening.
“I’m going to wait for the medical team and once we’ve got the diagnosis we’ll let everyone know.
“I’m not making any excuses here but I haven’t had the rub of the green to have a full squad to choose from for two consecutive games.
“It’s my job. I’m not complaining. I get on with it, and we get on with it as a management team.
“We look after the players who are injured to make sure we get them back to full fitness.
“However, the ones that are fit, we try to put the best team out for our football club.”
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Craig Tucker