Assistant manager Craig Fagan praised Aaron Blair after the Maidstone striker continued his fine form on Saturday.

Blair’s goal in the Stones’ 1-1 home draw with Slough was his eighth in as many games since going six without scoring at the start of the season.

The summer signing from Braintree has impressed Fagan with his desire to learn and improve.

“He didn’t hit the ground running when he came in but what I like about him is he wants to work hard and make himself better, which is massive,” said Fagan.

“He doesn’t let missed chances affect him because, as a forward, you’re going to miss more than you score.

“That’s just a fact but he’s always ready to go on the next one.

“He always wants to do extras at training, in terms of video clips he always wants to see what he could have done better, and he’s always asking questions.

“As a coach, that’s good for me because I can try and help him.

“That’s what we want here - people who want to get better, and he’s one of those who wants to improve and he wants to score goals.

“That’s what you want as a manager or an assistant manager, someone who wants to get in the box and score goals and enjoys doing that.

“He’s got eight now, so I’m happy for him.

“He could be on a hell of a lot more, 12 or 13, but he’s getting there, we’re starting to see more connection with the wide players and he’s working well with Jon Benton.”

Blair was alert in the six-yard box after Slough failed to deal with Ben Brookes’ corner on the stroke of half-time.

The seventh-placed Rebels levelled through Sam Evans just after the break after United lost possession on the halfway line.

Report: Maidstone 1-1 Slough

The hosts had chances to win but the point extended their unbeaten run to seven games in all competitions, although they remain without a home win in National League South.

“It was a competitive game,” said Fagan, whose side are 16th going into tomorrow’s match at Aveley.

“Slough are where they are in the league for a good reason, so it was a good test for us, but I still think we had some good chances and could have won the game.

“If it was the start of the season I think we may have lost that game, so you can see the improvement over the weeks.

“The lads are disappointed they’ve let two points go but we’ve kept our unbeaten run going if you take the positive side of it.

“We could have had one or two goals before we scored and we mentioned at half-time about coming out and being ready because Slough are going to step it up a little bit, which they did.

“I wouldn’t say we were comfortable but I felt we were going to kick on in the second half and we didn’t do so.

“We didn’t make them work too hard for the goal but we still had chances to win the game.

“They’re a good team, they work hard, they hard for the manager, so in the grand scheme of things it’s a good point, but we’re disappointed that we’ve let two go.”