Hakan Hayrettin was pleased to send Maidstone fans home on a high after a difficult year.

A crowd of almost 2,600 were at the Gallagher to see Hayrettin’s in-form team beat struggling Welling 4-1 on Tuesday.

Victory - their fifth in a row - sent United up to second place in National South, behind leaders Oxford City on goal difference.

It’s been a great end to a tough 2021 for supporters, with football a happy release from the Covid pandemic.

“The crowd were amazing,” said Stones boss Hayrettin.

“It’s been a tough year for everyone concerned, this Covid has affected people’s lives in different ways and if we’ve given any of these supporters a bit of joy then we’re overly pleased.

“From me to them, I thank them so much, I wish them a healthy and happy new year and look forward to seeing them against Tonbridge.”

Maidstone came from a goal down to continue their fine form, with Dominic Odusanya and Roarie Deacon giving them a half-time lead and Jack Barham and Gavin Hoyte completing the scoring against Peter Taylor’s side.

“It was a good team performance,” said Hayrettin.

“Obviously they scored and we should have done better, we were sloppy giving the corner away and I don’t think we dealt with it properly.

“But we’ve done well to come back and get control of the game.

“As everybody knows, I’ve got a lot of respect for Peter Taylor, he’s one of my idols, and they’re going to be OK.

“We showed good character to bounce back from 1-0 down and I think we deserved it. It could have been more.

• Report: Maidstone 4-1 Welling

“I tried to utilise the squad as best I could today and give some people a rest and I’m ever so happy the team have finished the year on a high.

“We’ve done ever so well and we need to continue that and I’ve just told them, and I keep saying it, hard work is hard work.

“There’s no getting away from it, the harder you work, you’ll get better results.

“We weren’t happy with the way we conceded and I’ve told them at half-time I wasn’t happy with a few things.

“We’ve come out and I thought we were better second half than we were first half, we showed a good response, pushed them back, played some good stuff and could have had some more goals.

“To score four goals at home is good, I’m happy.

“Even if we’d won 1-0 and it hit someone on the back of the head, I’m happy.

“I take just as much pleasure from this, like I did against Tonbridge and like I did against Dartford.

“We’re showing some consistency which is good.

“There’ll be a time when we may lose and we’ve got to be prepared for that as well, and so has everyone else.”