Maidstone were well beaten by League 2 Barnet in their first pre-season friendly on Saturday.

The Bees, with ex-Stones man Dan Sweeney handed a start, strolled into a two-goal lead inside 11 minutes and were three up by the break.

They took their tally to five with two late goals.

Maidstone named different sides for each half, while Barnet turned up with three XIs.

The Bees have been back in training for a fortnight and it showed in their sharpness.

It was pretty much a keep-ball session for the visitors in the first half while they were bright and lively in the final third against a United side featuring a number of trialists including former Gills defender Mitchell Dickenson.

Barnet led in the sixth minute, former Margate loanee Fumnaya Shomotun working space to bend the ball past Lee Worgan from just inside the area after combining up the left with Elliott Johnson.

The second followed in the 11th minute and it was another nice goal, as a six-pass move around the edge of the Stones box ended with Justin Amaluzor heading home a cross from Simeon Akinola.

Barnet had just switched to their second XI when they made it 3-0 on 31 minutes.

John Akinde and a trialist exchanged passes and while a challenge went in, the ball fell to Alex Nicholls.

Stones’ second-half XI immediately showed more intensity, led by Stuart Lewis, who it appears doesn’t even like taking it easy in a friendly.

The improvement didn’t translate into openings and when Maidstone lost the ball at the back, Ryan Watson went through and beat trialist keeper Callum Thomas as Barnet made it four in the 76th minute.

Barnet scored again five minutes later. This time, substitute Jean Louis Akpa Akpro ran after a pass and when the ball broke kindly off Thomas, he had the simple task of walking it in.

Maidstone (1st half): Worgan, Hare, Fox, Prestedge, Okuonghae, Dickenson, Dias, Pringle, Sam-Yorke, Paxman, Wraight.

Maidstone (2nd half): Thomas, Twumasi, Anderson, Phipps, Toure, Lokko, Campbell, Lewis, Pigott, Williams, Richards.

Subs: Taylor, Chambers, Omar, Dorling, Capel.

Attendance: 861.