Hakan Hayrettin saw the improvement in Maidstone's performance against Halifax.

United took the game to their fellow National League strugglers on Tuesday night but couldn't find the net.

The Shaymen, who'd gone five matches without scoring, started to look dangerous as the second half wore on and took the points with Scott Quigley's 87th-minute strike.

It was a second defeat in four days, following Saturday's 2-0 loss at Bromley, but head coach Hayrettin felt Maidstone should have won.

He said: "We thought we were going to nick it and they nicked it in the end.

"They got it and we didn’t, so it's very disappointing but it was better than the other day.

"A bit more quality in both boxes and we’ll win the game.

"Was it better than Saturday? Yes. Is it good enough? No.

"We’re only disappointed because we can see we’re heading in the right direction, so we have to build on that.

"You saw tonight as they’re coming off at the final whistle, some of them were on the backs because they’ve given everything and just that little bit of quality was lacking, but that will come.

"We had enough chances to win the game.

"We had enough balls in the box to win the game but we’ve given away a soft goal in the last five minutes and that happens in football."

Maidstone remain 10 points from safety with only 12 games left but the fight goes on.

Hayrettin said: "All we can do is keep believing and keep making the players believe that we’re doing everything we can to turn things around. It's small steps."

Read the match report from Maidstone's 1-0 defeat by FC Halifax