Maidstone boss George Elokobi loved the professionalism of his players in their comeback win over Dartford.

The Stones returned to National League South action three days on from the excitement of beating Stevenage in the FA Cup third round.

Elokobi made sure the squad enjoyed the biggest result in the club’s history, encouraging them to let their hair down.

But they were back at it in training on Monday and moved up to third place with a 2-1 derby success.

Harry Kyprianou cancelled out Luke Coulson’s penalty and Matt Rush bundled home the winner as Maidstone struck twice in five minutes from Sam Corne set-pieces.

Corne’s routines were inspired by club analyst Ben Fuller.

The FA Cup would have been a ready-made excuse had the Stones not shown up last night - but they were determined to deliver another three points in their fight for promotion.

“I had no concerns about this game,” said Elokobi, who made five changes for the match.

“When one game finishes, our job is to go straight to work on the next game.

“Yes, we enjoyed the occasion on Saturday but the planning was already ongoing from last week for this game.

“We knew what we were going to do and what opposition we were coming up against.

“Dartford are never easy to play against and we gave them every respect in our preparations.

“We knew their strengths and their limitations and we knew we were going to have some fresh legs coming into the team.

“We prepared the players right for this game - their mindset, their mentality - to ensure come game time it was back to our bread and butter of the league and we wanted three points in front of our home crowd again.

“We didn’t want any hangovers and I thought the players’ attitude and approach towards training on Monday was superb.

“They’ve come out today as a group and ensured we’ve got those three points, which is brilliant.

“It’s the mentality of our group right now.

“We’ve got lots of leaders in there and they’re driving the standards, which is important to see. They don’t want to lose.

Report: Maidstone 2-1 Dartford

“As much as we were all looking forward to the FA Cup draw on Monday night, they were already talking about this game and making sure we don’t lose to Dartford and they’ve come out here and performed excellently.

“They ran through brick walls for one another and that’s just the characters we’ve got here.”

Elokobi, confident plans for Dartford were in place, was never going to stop the players celebrating their victory over Stevenage as Maidstone reached the FA Cup fourth round for the first time in their history.

He said: “They had a good night. I told them to enjoy the occasion and it’s important I acknowledge the magnitude of what our group of players have done to our community, to our football club and to themselves and their families.

“As a group they earned that so they have to enjoy it.

“They enjoyed it on Saturday, they enjoyed it on Sunday but on Monday it was back to work.

“When you’ve got the trust of each other like we do here then it’s important you let them enjoy themselves.

“I’ve just said to them again in the changing room, make sure you keep enjoying the FA Cup victory and make sure you enjoy this one as well because these are fantastic moments in the club’s history.

“Football is not a job, football is a hobby, so this environment has been built on that - enjoyment first and then we can look after one another.”