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George Elokobi saw 10/10 performances all round as Maidstone secured a draw at Dorking following Reiss Greenidge’s dismissal.
The Stones had it all to do after centre-back Greenidge was dismissed in the first half for catching Jason Prior with his arm as he challenged for a header.
They quickly fell behind but a tactical reshuffle at the break saw boss Elokobi push a second man up front, with Harry Lodovica replacing midfielder Antony Papadopoulos in a switch to 3-4-2.
Plenty of sides would have taken a different approach, leaving one man up and hoping to nick something on the break, but Maidstone’s bravery was rewarded with an equaliser from leading scorer Aaron Blair.
“For us, because of what happened, it’s a great result for our football club,” said Elokobi, following the 1-1 draw.
“It’s a point towards the right direction, away from home, against a very good side.
“The players have been terrific.
“That was an excellent away performance by the group, a complete team performance.
“The team spirit, the togetherness out there, it wasn’t just one player, there were so many 10s out there for us.
“I thought when we went down to 10 men, everyone was a 10/10 in terms of performance level, togetherness, ruthlessness, relentlessness in the press.”
Maidstone worked their socks off and looked the more likely winners against a Dorking outfit who couldn’t find the solution to beat 10 men.
They’ve actually dropped a place to 17th but this was one of their best performances of the season in extending their unbeaten run in National League South to six games.
They’re eight points behind Dorking in the final play-off spot, with three games in hand on Marc White’s side.
Speaking of the second-half approach, Elokobi said: “Another team might come here and try to park the bus and go into a mid-low block, just to see out the game, but that’s not the Maidstone way.
“We play on the front foot. We’d rather give it a right old go and lose 4-0, there’s no shame in that.
“I’ve always said it, I love playing with two up front.
“It gives us a different dimension.
“We had to shuffle the pack and try and expose them in areas or force them in areas they didn’t want to play in.
“Tactically, we’ve gone in at half-time and showed them a couple of things on the tactics board.
“From what we saw in the first half, we knew we had more in the tank than them, in terms of our fitness and our conditioning.
“Technically and tactically, we knew how they play but, more importantly, they didn’t know how we play, I don’t think, because they couldn’t live with us.
“But fair play to Marc at the end, the message was that was a terrific performance, you deserved a point and well done to Marc. I’ve always loved competing against him.”
Elokobi reserved judgement on the decision to dismiss Stones centre-back Greenidge.
Referee Steven Hughes quickly pulled out the red card after he caught Prior on the halfway line.
Either way, Elokobi has never been one to blame officials.
“We have to look back at it,” he said. “I’m not one to start moaning.
“We have to review, we have to look at the incident, we have to look at the first phase, the contact from every angle, and we’ll see as a football club and make a decision on what we saw.
“Referees have got tough decisions to make.
“They officiate the game, our job is to manage and to try and respect the officials.
“Whatever decision they make, we have to take it on the chin.
“Sometimes it’s hard, standing in the technical area when decisions are given, but we have to watch the game as a management team and then make our own assessment of the officiating but we’ve got no complaints.
“We just got on with it and by us being positive in that manner, it doesn’t give us any distractions.
“We needed to be switched on and we were.”
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