Harry Wheeler told how a dressing-room row was the catalyst for Maidstone’s FA Cup first-round fightback against Macclesfield.

Stones boss Wheeler and No.2 Tristan Lewis were fuming with their side’s first-half display at the Gallagher as the League 2 Silkmen led 1-0.

They went nuts at the break, the players had their say and the reaction was brilliant as Maidstone fought back to win 2-1.

Wheeler said: “We had a little bit of a physical rough-up in there and shook it up a little bit and had a few verbals. Sometimes you need that.

“Sometimes you need to be nice if it’s not going well but today we needed to go in there and ruffle a few feathers at half-time.

“Some of the players did that as well and that was the way to the reaction, we needed to be more intense.

“In the first half they were more intense than we were and there’s no excuse for that.”

Wheeler may appear level-headed but he can lose it when he has to.

He said: “Sometimes it needs to have a little bit more of an aggressive environment at half-time to get a different reaction, and we managed to do that.

“It doesn’t come naturally to me as a character but it does when it’s down to my job, because it’s my life.

“I live and breathe it and if they’re messing with something that might affect my career then it’s comes very, very naturally.

“You affect my football results, it’s like affecting my family.

“It was a fantastic response.

"I’m not taking the credit for everything at half-time - there’s players in there who got involved and did the right things - but it was a fantastic response and again it’s showing they’ve got that mentality to come back.”

Jack Powell’s terrific free-kick and a Blair Turgott penalty sent Maidstone through to Monday night’s second-round draw.

But there was controversy at 1-1 when Elliott Romain’s header from a Jack Paxman corner was ruled out despite being well over the line.

The referee and linesman missed the goal and Wheeler felt it could have proved costly.

He said: “My only thing is if we can see it’s in from 60 yards away, and it is in, then what’s the lino doing?

“People forget and say we won the game so it’s all right but we might not have won the game.

“It might have been a draw, we might have gone there and lost in the replay and that’s cost the club a lot of money.

“There’s a great thing about respect and we were great on the side and we’ve been respectful.

“But at times there’s some obvious ones and if you’re looking along the line as a lino, that’s not a hard decision to make.”

Read the match report from Maidstone’s 2-1 win over Macclesfield