Caretaker manager Steve Watt praised Maidstone fans for their backing against Sutton.

There's been a huge outpouring of support for Jay Saunders since his departure last week.

No one knew if there would be a backlash on Tuesday night and while the crowd dipped below 2,000, the fans got behind their team.

Watt said: "I thought the crowd were excellent.

“The fans here have always been brilliant.

“I've always said it, you don't tend to find many fans like it.

"During the game you could hear them and I think it was driving the players on.

"I think even the players were a bit apprehensive about what they would be like but they were fantastic, they got behind the boys.

"I thought the boys tried, they gave their all but it wasn't good enough on the night.”

Watt is trying to strike a balance between keeping goals out and looking a threat going forward.

He felt the effort was there against Sutton but they looked short in attack.

Watt said: "Always, you've got to build from the back.

"We have to be solid, we have to be hard to break down but we have to commit bodies forward. I thought we did that at times.

"We looked a little bit more adventurous, trying to get people in the box, but again we got in four great crossing opportunities in the first half and we don't clear the first man. We don't ask the question.

"If we get in those positions it's the quality that's letting us down at the minute.

"We've looked at being solid and building from that and defensively we've looked good but we need to score goals.

“Goals win games and that is an area that needs addressing.”

Watt left it until the last 10 minutes to make any changes, introducing Jack Paxman and Andre Coker for Jordan Wynter and Stuart Lewis.

The reason for that was simple.

He said: "I thought we were on top of the game.

"Sutton had changed their shape twice to try and stop what we were doing and I'm never a fan of changing shape when you're on top of games.

"And obviously the options on the bench were limited, it was mainly midfield and wide players on the bench.

"We'd love to be able to bring on a fresh striker to be able stretch teams but we didn't have that luxury.

"You don't want to kill a team's momentum so I gave the boys every opportunity they could to take advantage of that period on top.”

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