National League safety beats the lot for Maidstone co-owner Terry Casey.

United reached the top flight of non-league football after three promotions in four seasons but nothing compares to staying there.

A young squad were exposed as Maidstone slid down the table but with new signings came a nine-game unbeaten run that turned their season around.

They secured survival with wins against Wrexham and Boreham Wood over Easter.

Mr Casey said: “This is just an extraordinary achievement.

“We saw the problem in October and November but actually then turning the ship around, that’s a big, big thing to do and I’d never been faced with that level of challenge before.

“This is much bigger than winning the Ryman South play-offs or the Ryman Premier title or the Conference South play-off final.

“This was a big, big deal to be in this league and deserve to be.

“Having spent a year here, learned so much and understood what was needed on the pitch and off the pitch, it would have been such a tragedy not to be able to put it to use next season.”

Maidstone dropped into the relegation zone before launching their climb to safety and they sit 13th going into their last three games.

Mr Casey said: “Everybody at the start said we’d be happy with mid-table safety.

“That’s where we’ve got but I don’t think people realise that when you go for mid-table safety you have to lose about 18 football matches and that comes hard, especially when you lose them all in blocks.

“There were times when we didn’t look a team good enough to stay in the league, we were struggling to beat anybody.”

Maidstone are going full-time next season and plan to integrate the academy into first-team training.

It’s virtually unheard of for a National League side to train only two nights a week, so it’s time to make the change.

Mr Casey said: “It’ll cost more, it’ll definitely cost more.

“You can’t do that major sea change without having to pay a lot more money for the privilege but the fact is we’re ready for it.

“We’re ready financially, emotionally, on and off the pitch, for the challenges ahead.

“Every season we’ve had here, there’s been a drama. I don’t know what will happen next.

“We can’t just sit here and say mid-table security - it’s not in our DNA just to sit around and hope to come 11th or 12th.”