Character is key if Maidstone are to rescue their National League South play-off ambitions this season.

That’s according to head of football John Still, who has seen his side fall eight points off the top seven after four straight defeats.

They bid to halt the slide this Saturday at home to a Welling team who are only three points behind them after pulling clear of the relegation zone.

Still said: “I’ll be highlighting the games coming up from this Saturday through to Dartford and saying to the players, look, we’ve got all these games coming up, the only team that’s in front of us at the moment is Dartford.

“That gives us a great chance of winning and if we do have a great run, by the time we play Dartford we’ll probably be next to them or just in front of them.

“So really this next run of games, it’s down to the players to show a bit more character than they have done recently.

“I’m not saying more ability because I actually do think in a couple of the games we haven’t played terrible.

“We were terrible at Weymouth but other games we just haven’t finished teams off.”

Still held a meeting at training on Tuesday to discuss the Weymouth capitulation.

He wanted honesty from the players – and he got it.

“In speaking to them after watching the game, everybody has said the right things,” said Still. “I made it clear, please don’t say something you think I want you to say.

“I don’t want you to say you’ve been rubbish if you don’t think you have and I don’t want you to say you’ve done great if you haven’t.

“You have to say what you feel because it’s like anything else, if you don’t admit something, you can’t cure it.

“It was very open and very honest, it was there in front of their eyes.

“When people saw what they contributed to the game, I don’t think anyone could say anything other than they should have done better.

“It’s difficult because I always say no one is expecting you to play great every week.

“We’re all going to make mistakes. I’m going to make mistakes, Hak’s going to make mistakes, players are going to make mistakes, referees are going to make mistakes.

“But if you’re making mistakes, let it be when you’re trying to do the right thing at the right time.

“If you have a bad touch, that’s football; if you misplace a pass, that’s football.

“But don’t not mark someone, don’t not play a ball forwards and play it back when it’s easier to play forwards. They know all these things and what we expect.

“So that’s what we say to them: did your contribution match our expectations? There was no problem in the answers to that.”

Maidstone are due at Tonbridge on Tuesday but ongoing problems with the Longmead pitch could see the game postponed or switched to a neutral venue.

• Criticism comes with the job

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