Jay Saunders could hardly be more relaxed about the National League South title race as Maidstone close in on Ebbsfleet.

It’s impossible to ignore United after a 2-1 victory over Hemel on Saturday moved them four points behind the leaders with two games in hand.

But all the pressure remains on big-spending favourites Fleet, while Maidstone are simply having fun in their first season at this level.

For the first time, Saunders has accepted his side are genuine title contenders.

The Stones manager said: "I suppose you look at the table, then yes we are.

"I said to the lads before the game and I just said to them afterwards, just forget all that, just concentrate now on Monday and we’ll go from there.

"We didn’t expect to be up where we are at this stage of the season.

"I said if we scraped into the play-offs it would be an unbelievable season so to be where we are, you’ve got to give the lads a lot of credit.

"They’ve stuck to it, even through the bad spells, so you look at it and table-wise we are but realistically, like I’ve said along, I just want to secure that play-off place and we’ll go from there.

"There’s no pressure at all. It’s our first season up, we’re enjoying it.

"I’d be feeling a lot more pressure if we were down the bottom trying to stay up.

"At the end of the day we weren’t expected to compete with the Ebbsfleets and the Suttons and people like that."

United conceded early against Hemel but terrific strikes from Callum Driver and Vas Karagiannis gave them victory in front of almost 2,500 fans at the Gallagher.

There was no shortage of entertainment - quick tempo, plenty of chances, good goals - although Saunders felt it was more a case of job done.

He added: "Nicky Southall went and watched them on Tuesday, he rung me straight up, said we’re going to be tested defensively, they’re going to put everything in our box, they’re a big side and they work really hard and, to be fair, that’s what they were.

"We showed good character to come back into it after going 1-0 down. I’m as pleased with that as I was last week because we knew it would be a tough test."

Maidstone go to Chelmsford on Easter Monday (3pm) with striker Dumebi Dumaka once again missing with an ankle injury.

Saunders said: "They’re one of those sides that on their day are very good.

"Going forward they’ve got a couple of dangerous players, obviously Bill Bricknell we know well and a few others, but they do concede goals.

"We’re on a good run and we can just go there and hopefully continue where we left off."