Jay Saunders felt Hartlepool showed more desire than his Maidstone players on Saturday.

Pools’ 3-1 victory was their first home win of the season as United dropped to 19th in the National League table.

Stones went to Victoria Park looking to frustrate a home following who have seen their side tumble out of the Football League and make a slow start this season.

But it didn’t happen for the visitors whose 600-mile round trip ended in a first defeat in five games.

Boss Saunders said: “I just think we weren’t at the races today.

“We had a lot of possession at times but without really hurting them and I think they showed a little bit more desire and, for me, I thought the game was won in midfield.

“I thought their midfield three really got the better of ours and two of their goals came from midfielders.

“They looked like they had a little bit more energy than us and deserved their win.

“This is a place where if they’re not doing well, the crowd turns on them and you could see during the spell when we started well second half, that was the case.

“We wanted to stay in the game and try and make it hard for them.

“The first goal is a foul on Joe Anderson in the lead-up to it, which I was disappointed with because if that’s given, they don’t get that opportunity to get the goal.

“That’s the way it goes and once they scored that, you could see the crowd get on their side.”

Maidstone, trailing to Keith Watson’s 19th-minute opener, were on top early in the second half but Jonathan Franks scored a breakaway second and Connor Simpson’s header made sure before Johan ter Horst replied.

Saunders said: “They know that teams come a long way here and you could see first 20 minutes they really try and come at you and once they do and the crowd are behind them, then it helps them.

“That 15 minutes at the start of the second half, when you’re on top like that, you’ve got to take one of your chances, you’ve got to open them up and ask the question and we couldn’t do that today.

“They’ll take a lot of points here. I know they’ve not had the greatest of starts but you could see they’ve got a good side, they’re really workmanlike, they’re very hardworking, typical when you come up north really, but I think we could have asked more questions of them.”

One positive was ter Horst’s first Maidstone goal in his second substitute appearance since recovering from shoulder surgery.

Saunders said: “I thought Johan was outstanding. His movement, his desire, he took his goal well and I’m chuffed to bits for him because he’s had a long path back and he’s done a lot of work by himself behind the scenes.”

Read the match report from Maidstone's 3-1 defeat at Hartlepool