George Elokobi was delighted with the reaction as Maidstone bounced back from their weekend defeat.

The Stones, beaten 2-1 by St Albans on Saturday, responded with a 2-0 home win over Chelmsford in National League South on Tuesday night.

Elokobi liked what he saw against the second-placed visitors as Sam Corne’s late penalty and an injury-time strike from Matt Rush got United’s play-off push back on track.

The Stones moved up a place to eighth, outside the top seven on goal difference.

“It’s all about the reaction,” said boss Elokobi.

“We’ve had ups and downs in terms of our performance but we said to the boys it’s important we set our own intensity at home but make sure we’re nice and compact.

“It was about effectiveness and efficiency in terms of how we wanted to play against a good side.

“They’ve been on an unbelievable run and we knew we needed a collective effort to get a result.

“The boys have gone out there and they’ve done an excellent performance for themselves and this football club.”

An end-to-end first half somehow ended goalless but Maidstone’s persistence was rewarded in the second half while Chelmsford had Finley Barbrook sent off shortly after Corne’s opener.

Elokobi said: “I thought in the final third we moved the ball really well. The only thing lacking was a finish and the keeper made some good saves.

Report: Maidstone 2-0 Chelmsford

“We got in the right areas and we put in some very good balls in the prime target areas but we didn’t capitalise.

“It was about coming out in the second half, making sure we stay nice and organised to start with and then we can build from the first-half performance and we did that in terms of how we moved the ball.

“I thought the units worked collectively well together in terms of our defenders, our midfielders and our forwards.

“We tweaked something at half-time to help us offensively, to give us more creativity but also that press we wanted.

“The boys have come out and rewarded our supporters.

“It was about making sure we played on the front foot from minute one to the last minute which I thought we did excellently in terms of how we wanted to press.

“We pressed sensibly, setting traps, making sure they played into our strengths and it was important on the turnover we looked for that killer instinct or killer touch.

“We got the penalty but we didn’t want to rest there, we wanted to go for another goal.”