Maidstone manager George Elokobi was never going to ask his 10 men to sit back and shut up shop at Worthing.

The Stones trailed 3-0 at half-time after having midfielder Bivesh Gurung sent off while a goal down.

But they emerged committed to attack in the second half, a bold approach against a Rebels side who use the ball as well as any team in National League South.

Harry Kyprianou twice went close before Matt Rush pulled a goal back, only for promotion rivals Worthing - beaten 4-0 at the Gallagher Stadium in September - to complete a 5-1 victory.

Elokobi said: “When you’ve had a player sent off, most managers would sit back and allow the opposition to build play and have about a thousand passes but that’s not us, that’s not me as a manager.

“My team knows we are positive in our approach.

“If we’re going to get beat, let’s have a good go and I thought the players who came out in the second half did that.

“Lapses of concentration at set-pieces have ended up costing us another two goals but I can forgive my lads - they’ve been terrific this season.”

Maidstone haven’t lost many games but tend to go down heavily when they do.

They were beaten 3-0 at Bath, 5-2 at Hampton, 4-0 at Barnet in the FA Trophy and now the Worthing result.

“That’s a challenge of being a manager - that’s upon George Elokobi,” said the Stones boss, whose side dropped from second to fourth in the table.

“Am I going to have sleepless nights? Not a chance.

“I know where the problems lie and I’ll try to sort them out. I’ll find solutions.

“That’s our job as a management team.

“We’ll find solutions and we’ll make sure we get the right partnerships all over the pitch for our next game, so we have to go to work straight away.

“Heavy defeats are not ideal but when you’re down to 10 men, it does happen.

“It’s happened to us twice now when we’ve gone down to 10 men and paid a heavy price but we have to regroup and we have to go again.”

Report: Worthing 5-1 Maidstone

Elokobi says Gurung must learn from his second red card this season.

The midfielder, dismissed in the Stones’ 1-1 draw at Hemel in August, was sent off after a heavy first touch led to a lunge on Odei Sorondo.

Talk about the highs and lows of football, with Gurung making national headlines a fortnight ago after his FA Cup heroics against Barrow.

“It’s his own fault. No one else’s,” said the Stones boss.

“If your first touch is right, you don’t get yourself involved in that.

“I reminded him of how he picked up his injury as well in this same fixture earlier in the season.

“His first touch wasn’t right and he’s ended up getting in a tackle when it shouldn’t have been that way.

“If that’s his limitation he needs to start working on it consistently, daily, in training, even away from our training ground, he needs to practise at home if his first touch is one of his limitations.

“That’s how you get better. So he’s got himself to blame for this one.

“He’s not a villain. It just happens that he’s got sent off today but he’s going to learn by missing games.

“When he gets another opportunity to go out on the pitch, he has to make sure all those basics are done right and then he doesn’t put himself in a position where he gives the referee a chance to either brandish a red card or a yellow card.”