George Elokobi welcomed Sol Wanjau-Smith’s response to being left out of the Maidstone squad.

Wanjau-Smith started the first two games of the National South season - scoring against Slough and missing a penalty at Bath.

He was restricted to late substitute appearances at Braintree and Yeovil and was out of the squad entirely against Hemel and Taunton.

But the ex-Hungerford forward was back among the substitutes at Weymouth on Saturday and impressed from the bench after coming on with the visitors trailing 2-1.

United went on to win 3-2 and Elokobi was delighted with Wanjau-Smith’s contribution.

“That’s what I like, I like players to challenge me - in a good way,” said Elokobi, whose side meet second-placed Aveley at the Gallagher tonight (7.45pm).

“It was a tactical change in terms of the last two games.

“It’s about making sure you keep every single player at this football club hungry.

“Not that he’s not hungry but I want more from Sol and he’s giving us more.

“We’ve had that conversation and it’s important we have a fit Sol Wanjau-Smith. Again, not that he’s not fit, but I want more.

“I’m never satisfied as a manager. I always want more from my players.

“Even Levi Amantchi (the Stones’ four-goal leading scorer), I’ve told him I want more because he’s cramping up a lot, Liam Sole as well.

“I’m honest with them and I’ve told them you’ve got to look after your bodies right. There’s a lot of education going on at this football club.

“Our players, we know where they’ve been, where they’ve come from and we want to help them with every bit of their professional information.

“That’s why we’ve got the management team we have.

“It’s an education because they’ve not been in such a professional organisation like ours.

“It’s about recovery. How do we recover, when do we recover, what do we eat, what do we drink?

“Forty-eight hours before a game, what goes on inside your system helps us produce effective performances.

“Everyone is on board with that and we’re trying to help each and every player, so it was good to see Sol come on (against Weymouth) and he was very effective.”

Maidstone will move level on points with Aveley if they beat the National South new boys tonight.

The Essex club have made a flying start following promotion, winning five of their seven games, and on Saturday beat Torquay 2-1.