Alex Flisher has got the band back together as he prepares for his Maidstone United testimonial.

A collection of big favourites from the Jay Saunders era have signed up to support Flisher on his big day at the Gallagher Stadium on Friday, May 12 (gates open 5.30pm, kick-off 7pm).

The former winger, who made 275 appearances for his hometown club, was offered a testimonial after a knee injury forced him into retirement, aged just 30.

Flisher, whose five-year-old son Louis plays at the club these days, will be pulling on his boots again for what’s set to be a memorable day.

Saunders and his former No.2 and captain Steve Watt will manage the sides and they have the likes of Lee Worgan, Jamie Coyle, Joe Healy, Stuart Lewis, Jack Paxman, Frannie Collin and Ade Olorunda to pick from.

Flisher spent almost a decade with the Stones, helping the club to three promotions in four seasons and a mid-table National League finish before joining Margate in 2017. He’s looking forward to coming back.

“It was about a week or two after my retirement, the club said how do you fancy a testimonial?” he said.

“You can’t say no to that. I jumped at the chance and since then I’ve been trying to organise everything that goes with it.

“It’s not been a problem getting players together. Tom Mills is away and Shane Huke and Adam Birchall are injured but, other than that, everyone’s said yes, so it’s worked out nicely.

“I can still play in this game. What I couldn’t do any more was the playing Saturday-Tuesday and training Thursday, which is why I had to retire.

“The physical impact of that would have ruined my knee with the amount of cartilage I’ve got left.

“It was a decision that was taken out of my hands, so the bug to get back isn’t like it is when you’ve retired through your own choice and you watch games thinking, ‘I could have done that’.

“Where I physically can’t do it I’ve been fine with it, but I’m looking to playing in the testimonial.”

Flisher is arguably the most popular player from the Gallagher years.

A homegrown talent who gave absolutely everything typified a golden spell for the club as they moved through the leagues after returning to their own ground in the county town after a 24-year absence.

“Everyone remembers that time,” said Flisher.

“A major part of it was Jay. He was local, I was local and a few of the lads lively locally.

“Everyone used to go in the bar after games and talk to fans.

“We’d have to get kicked out of the bar, and then we’d go into town, sometimes with the families.

“We had such a good team spirit back then and it came from Jay. He instilled that. We were all mates who’d fight for each other on the pitch.

“We’d just go out there and win at all costs, whether it was ugly, like against Welling in the FA Cup when we threw the ball in the box 30 times in the first half, or whether we played.

“People always talk about my long throw but we still played a lot of good football. That was the thing - we could do a bit of everything.”

Tickets for Flisher’s testimonial are priced £10 adults and £7 youths/concessions, while under-11s go free with a paying adult.

Tickets can be booked online via eventbrite.com (search Alex Flisher testimonial), or you can pay on the gate.

Confirmed names: Jay Saunders, Steve Watt, Nicky Southall, Lee Worgan, Deren Ibrahim, Sonny Miles, Jamie Coyle, Aaron Simpson, Graeme Andrews, Tommy Osborne, Seth Nana Twumasi, Steve Ward, Anthony Acheampong, Matt Bodkin, James Rogers, Alex Brown, Jack Paxman, Sam Flisher, Ben Greenhalgh, Danny Lye, Reece Prestedge, Stuart Lewis, Joe Healy, Ian Draycott, Frannie Collin, Jay May, Nathan Elder, Alex Akrofi, Paul Booth, Ade Olorunda, Alex Waugh.