Tom Mills has told how he almost snubbed Maidstone as he closes in on 250 games for the club.

Nobody has played more times for United in the five years since left-back Mills made his debut in August 2010.

He’s chalked up 244 appearances and is a big favourite with fans and boss Jay Saunders, who named him manager’s player-of-the-year last season. But the 23-year-old revealed how different things could have been.

He said: “It was a friend of mine, Ben O’Neill, who said we should go along for under-18 trials but I wasn’t too bothered.

“I’d left Sheppey after they folded and wasn’t interested in playing any more. I thought I’d just go to work and leave football alone for a while. Ben persuaded me to go to the trials and we both ended up signing.”

Mills soon progressed to the reserves under Peter Nott, who promoted him to the first-team squad after succeeding Alan Walker and Lloyd Hume. Chances were limited, though, and it was only when Saunders took over from Andy Ford that his career took off.

When Mills made his 200th appearance last year, Saunders said he was amazed nobody had taken a chance on him at a higher level.

But the defender said: “I had a little trial at Charlton a couple of years ago that was supposed to be for four weeks but they only gave me two. That’s been the only interest but I’m happy here.”