Maidstone midfielder Jai Reason is loving football again.

Reason was down in the dumps after finishing last season at Boreham Wood.

He rejected a new deal and was linked with Ebbsfleet before accepting Jay Saunders’ offer to join United.

The former Ipswich man took a few weeks to find his feet having missed the start of pre-season but is now bang in form.

Reason, who’s set to face Wood at the Gallagher on Tuesday night, said: “I fell out of love with football last season, especially at Boreham Wood.

“They offered me a couple of contracts to sign for this season but I just knew it wasn’t right there.

“Jay’s brought me in and you can see he has faith in me and I’m loving every minute here.

“It’s kicked my career on, I’m at a club that’s well-run, that’s got a great dressing room and the fans are fantastic, home and away. It’s a real good time at the minute.”

Reason has played both the holding role and behind the main striker, becoming a key man in Maidstone’s midfield three.

But with Delano Sam-Yorke suspended and Tom Wraight injured, he filled in on the left wing as United ground out a 1-0 win at Torquay on Saturday.

Reason said: “I played on the left of a four at Eastleigh and used to come and tuck in when I was a little bit younger and I think my game’s improved since then and changed a lot.

“When Jay asked me to do the job, I just get my head down, work hard and deal with
it. I got brought just inside in the second half and we defended so well.

“I’m so proud of the boys to come down here and get the three points.”

Saunders took more satisfaction from beating Torquay than he did the FA Cup win at Cheltenham and Reason understands where his manager is coming from.

He said: “I can see why Jay said that. We’ve gone to a League 2 side and won 4-2 and then we’ve come here and it’s a totally different game but it’s the same outcome.

“We’ve got a win and it just shows we can win all different types of ways and with the group of boys we’ve got, we’re going to have a good season.”