Adam Birchall’s time will come again.

Birchall has been an unused substitute in Maidstone’s last three games and there’s even more competition in attack following the signings of Vas Karagiannis and Dan Sweeney.

The former Gillingham striker has scored just once since joining his hometown club on a season-long loan from Bromley – and that was back in September.

But boss Jay Saunders still has belief in the 31-year-old and is backing him to come good ahead of the National League South game at Hayes & Yeading on Saturday (3pm).

Saunders said: “Birch has done well linking things up for us.

“He would like his goal return to be better but it’s one of them where all the time he was offering something to the team with his link-up and we were winning every week, there’s no problem.

“When that’s not happening, people start looking at his goals and where our form has dropped a little bit, he’s been questioned.

“Birch will get another run. I said Frannie Collin would – and he has – and the same applies to Birch. We’re still looking for the right formula.”

Karagiannis and Sweeney are pushing for starts as second-placed United look to improve a record of 20 goals in as many league games, against a Hayes & Yeading side who groundshare at Maidenhead.

Saunders said: “We’ve signed them for a reason and they’ve looked sharp in training. We need more goals but you can’t blame the forwards – we need everyone chipping in."