Regan Booty has to make the most of a short career after deciding to leave Maidstone United.

Midfielder Booty will depart the Gallagher this summer after turning down a new deal.

The 25-year-old made 80 appearances in two seasons, scoring 18 goals.

He was a key part of the side who won the National South title and had plenty of admirers this year despite United’s miserable National League campaign, making his England C debut.

Booty, who lives in the town and also coaches the under-18s, will miss Maidstone.

But the former Huddersfield and Notts County man has to do what’s right for his career - a lesson he’s learned over the years.

Booty said: “I’ve never really been selfish enough in my career but it’s a short career and you’ve got to be selfish.

“It’s a dog-eat-dog world and, regardless of what other people think, it’s all on you to make decisions.

“You’ve got to make your own career and in 10 years’ time you don’t want to look back and say I should have done this or I should have stayed there or I should have gone there.

“You’ve got to go with your heart and wherever your heart takes you, that’s where you end up going.

“You want to be fighting for promotions and be in title races.

“We had it here last year. The success we had, going to games and taking loads of fans and having sell-outs here at the end of the season, that’s what you want.

“You don’t play football to lose and get relegation. You play because you want to do well and succeed and have as much success in your career as possible.

“You have decisions to make and you have people speaking to you. That’s how football works.

“It’s nice to have calls and interest. As a footballer, you always aim to be higher and higher.”

It’s been a difficult campaign for Maidstone following the highs of last season’s promotion.

Three wins in the opening six matches suggested they were adapting well to the National League.

But they won only two of the next 40 - both in November - and finished 25 points from safety in last place.

Booty said: “It’s a tough one to speak about in that you look back and so much has happened.

“We’ve gone through so many different players but ultimately we weren’t good enough.

“That’s football and you have to hold your hands up and be accountable as a group.

“If we’d had more belief it might have been a different story but we can’t change things.

“You never anticipate you’re going to get relegated.

“We knew it was going to be tough - we’re realistic people.

“We weren’t going into the National League thinking we’re going to walk all over teams but we had a good first month and we probably rested on our laurels a little bit.

“We had games, like when we went up to Gateshead, and got battered, and we had games where we threw leads away.

“I’ve seen stats about how many points we’ve given away from winning positions and we’ve only got ourselves to blame for that really.

“We’ve got to look at ourselves. We’ve let ourselves down in some ways.

“When you go half a season without winning a game, you deserve to get relegated. That’s the harsh reality.

“We’re bottom for a reason. We’ve got no excuses.

“Sometimes you look back at games and think how we have lost that but it’s easy to do that.”