Co-owner Terry Casey has hit out at the National League over the scheduling of Maidstone’s derby with Ebbsfleet.

The teams meet at the Gallagher Stadium on Tuesday (7.45pm) after the league overlooked United’s request for no home Kent derbies in the early weeks of the season.

They wanted time to complete building work, raising capacity from 2,300 to 3,000, before facing any of their Kent rivals.

United have had a strained relationship with the league ever since their high-profile campaign to get 3G pitches accepted.

The fixture snub hasn’t gone down well with Mr Casey, who has long since washed his hands of the league.

Mr Casey said: "I’m notoriously bad with people in authority and power anyway. I was amused if not exasperated to see, after we specifically asked for no local derbies early on please, that
they gave us the biggest game of the season as our first home match.

"I don’t know why they’ve done it but it’s caused us a problem.

"We would have got 3,000 in – we can only get 2,300 now – and it’s cost us thousands.

"That’s the way authority figures and leagues work apparently, so that’s why I keep away from them. I have nothing to do with them at all."

Mr Casey believes the league remain sceptical over 3G even though it’s now permitted in the North and South divisions.

He said: "They certainly haven’t embraced the 3G concept. They’re still seemingly battling the whole idea of 3G.

"I don’t know where that comes from any more because if anybody watched the Women’s World Cup, you could see that surface was fine, people played good football and there were no extra injuries."