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Sport

Maidstone United co-owner Oliver Ash reveals his wish-list for next season

By: Craig Tucker ctucker@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 00:00, 10 May 2019

Updated: 06:43, 10 May 2019

There will be no rash promotion demands from Maidstone's owners as the club rebuild in National League South.

Oliver Ash and Terry Casey want to be competitive but there is no pressure on head of football John Still to deliver automatic promotion back to the National League.

Ash's priority is to see an entertaining team giving their all and that will hopefully mean they are in the play-off mix.

Maidstone head coach Hakan Hayrettin with head of football John Still Picture: Andy Jones

He said: "Terry and I want a team that’s going to be exciting to watch, with players fans will warm to because they give 100% every single time, in the mould of Alex Flisher and Stuart Lewis.

"We want to see a team that will be competitive and give our fans greater joy, particularly at home, than we’ve had in the last two or three seasons where we've been toughing it out with the big boys in the National League.

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"There comes a time in my experience that you’ve got a team that’s struggling in a division and it wears you out.

"It wears the owners out, it wears the whole staff out, it wears the management out and it wears the supporters out.

"You almost have to go down in order to breathe again and look forward to better times.

"I’m hoping we have that sort of bounce but it won’t be easy.

Maidstone need players in the mould of their former winger Alex Flisher Picture: Steve Terrell

"We shouldn’t imagine that dropping down to National South means we can just just turn up and win games.

"There will be a period of adjustment and it’ll take us a while to get used to that level and make sure we can perform well at that level.

"We’ll have to work very hard but we’ll be looking to be battling in the top half and hopefully the play-offs.

"Our main product is the men’s first team and we need to make sure it’s a good product, that we can afford to produce the product and that the club continues to thrive in all the other ways in which it thrives.

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"It’s important to underline we’ve got a fantastic community club working here.

"We can’t lose sight of the fact the club is in a good place and people around the club are working very hard to make all the different bits work that are needed to run a successful football club.

"It’s a community club and the community side is working very, very well, so that’s the good news and that’s what gives us confidence we can rebuild the team and move forward again."

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