Maidstone players felt the love of caretaker managers Tristan Lewis and Simon Walton as a tough week ended on a high.

The confidence was back as the Stones ended a five-match losing streak with a 1-0 win at Boreham Wood.

It felt like a different club in the space of a day, with the team enjoying themselves and the fans firmly behind them, following Harry Wheeler’s departure.

Ross Worner’s penalty save sealed the points for 10-man Maidstone who led through Jake Cassidy before having Dan Wishart sent off.

Lewis said: “Me and Simon are both a little bit older and maybe we’ve seen things from a bit more of a mature point of view, I don’t know.

“We’re both parents and probably just know these boys need a bit of love sometimes.

“They’re young lads who want a bit of love and you’ve got to create an environment where they can thrive.

“It’s got on top of all of us, I’m not going to lie, the cloud around the club, and that’s not all Harry’s doing by the way.

“I’ve got three kids at home, I think I know how to bring out the best in people and sometimes that’s by giving them a bit of love and an arm round them and a bit of freedom and that’s all we did.

“Solskjaer did the same at Man Utd, he used the word freedom, go and give Jack Paxman, Jack Powell, those sort of boys, freedom to play, and they’ll only grow.

“They’ve all had good careers and everybody knows we’ve got a half-decent squad but confidence is the biggest thing in football.”

The caretaker bosses got the response they wanted as Maidstone won for the first time since a 2-0 success at Barnet on November 3.

Lewis said: “The proof is in the pudding and every single one of those lads gave their all for the club, me and Simon gave our all on the side for it and it just felt a bit different.

“We felt we could come in and do something and I’m just so proud of the boys.

“We’ve had an easier job today than Harry’s had over the last few weeks, let’s have it right, because we couldn’t lose as long as the boys worked their nuts off, and they did and ultimately they deserved the result.

“An early goal, sometimes that can be an enemy for you but I thought the biggest difference, which was really important, was when we scored we didn’t sit off, we wanted to be on the front foot.

“We have to be on the front foot. If you sit off, look at the Dover game the other day, you’re going to come unstuck in the end.

“We just said we’re not that team any more and we don’t want to be that team.

“We want to be on the front foot, we want to be confident in ourselves to win games of football and today we have.”

Read the match report from Maidstone's 1-0 win at Boreham Wood