Joint caretaker boss Simon Walton felt Maidstone’s performance against Dagenham was one of their best this season - despite a 3-0 defeat.

The Stones created a host of good chances but were picked off by a Daggers side who were second-best for much of the game.

Maidstone are now six points from safety in the National League after another damaging loss and Walton says it looks like they will "learn too late".

Walton said: “That’s probably one of the best we’ve played all season, over the whole of the game, but we lose 3-0.

“I can’t criticise, I can’t be critical of any player, any player’s attitude, any player’s desire, and player’s willingness to do what we asked them to do, but the harsh reality is a result that proves why we are where we are.

“They’ve had four shots in the whole game and scored three.

“We’ve probably had double figures and the keeper could have thrown his hat on them.

“That’s a harsh lesson and one that at the minute looks like we’re going to learn too late.

“Whether this is my last game looking after them, what will be will be, but from my point of view I can't ask any more.”

Three big chances went begging inside 10 minutes as Maidstone got after Dagenham.

The visitors were clinical at the other end and Walton says you get what you deserve in football.

He said: “Again, ifs, buts and maybes. I don’t want to be one of those people.

“I hate when I look at other managers and they say ‘we don’t deserve that, we didn’t deserve that’ - you get what you deserve in general.

“We could have been 3-0 up in 10 minutes, we should have been 3-0 up in 10 minutes.

“They’re not hard chances, they’re chances that when you’re a goalscorer, a centre-forward, that’s what you get paid to do.

“You don’t do it and then you concede three against strikers who do what they’re supposed to do and the game, the result, the table, looks a whole lot different."

“If you lose 3-0 and you get battered like against Maidenhead on Tuesday, it’s a totally different thing.

“Today, you put in that heart, that effort, that everything, we still lose 3-0, that’s a different lesson from Tuesday.

“But it’s still a very harsh lesson we haven’t learnt over the course of the season and that’s why results like that have happened more often than not.”

Read the match report from Maidstone's 3-0 defeat by Dagenham