Local lad Perri Iandolo impressed on his Maidstone debut at Southend on Good Friday.

Iandolo, 20, played the final 12 minutes at Roots Hall, replacing Yoan Zouma, with United 2-0 down.

After progressing through the under-16s, under-18s and under-23s, the midfielder’s been on contract for the past two years, without making a first-team appearance.

But after loan spells at Faversham and Hemel Hempstead this season - the latter cut short by injury - new boss George Elokobi gave him his chance in front of a big National League crowd of 6,603.

“I’ve always said the door is open for all the players here,” said Elokobi.

“As long as I’m the manager of this football club, if you work hard, you’re going to be rewarded.

“It’s about keeping high standards and making sure you train well and today I thought it was the right time to give Perri a chance. If that’s his debut, well done.

“I thought he came on and played some good stuff.

“Hopefully we see plenty more of that from him.

“He has to make sure he keeps his fitness up and keeps working hard to develop his body, with the help of myself and the management team, and we’ll get him there.

“It was good to see him out there.”

If there were any nerves it didn’t show, with Iandolo looking at home in his first taste of National League football.

Elokobi added: “Well, I’ve been a soldier on the other side like Perri.

“Perri’s on a journey and that is why I always go back to keeping high standards and making sure you’re ready because you never know when that shout will come.

“We pick the team, the squad, based on how we see the opposition and the players we pick to start and the ones on the bench all have a role to play for us.

“When Regan Booty had to step in and do a job for the team (switching to centre-back), that freed up space for Perri to come into it in the No.10 role, because we know he’s got that flair, and he did well.”

Maidstone trailed to Jack Bridge’s seventh-minute opener and Southend secured the points when Gus Scott-Morriss struck inside the final 15 minutes.

United, backed by almost 250 travelling fans, were well in the game but their winless run reached 21 matches.

“The players stood tall against a good Southend side,” said Elokobi.

“I couldn’t have asked any more of our players today.

“They gave it their all and again it’s a learning curve for us.

"The first five or 10 minutes of the game gave Southend something to hold on to but I thought after that we controlled the game and tried to create the better chances in the first half.

“In the second half it was always going to be cagey.

"Do we leave ourselves open? We stayed in the game for as long as we could to see if we could create one or two chances up front."

Roarie Deacon and Regan Booty forced excellent saves from Collin Andeng Ndi while Booty also hit the woodwork in the first half.

"We created a lot of chances," said Elokobi. "It’s about putting those chances in the back of the net. We were getting closer and closer but it wasn’t to be today.

“We have to look at it and see if next time we can try and put the ball in the back of the net because that’s what separated the two teams today.

“They got a goal and they defended really well, throwing their bodies on the line to make sure they could keep a clean sheet and that’s the mentality we have to take."