Maidstone boss Jay Saunders says Ebbsfleet vice-chairman Peter Varney is talking ‘absolute rubbish’ about 3G pitches.

Mr Varney claimed the surface encourages direct football while outlining why it shouldn’t be allowed in the Football League.

Artificial pitches will always divide opinion but the long-ball argument is surely a first.

Saunders is confident 3G will be seen in League 2 before too long, whatever Mr Varney thinks.

He said: “You’ve got Sutton pushing to win the league, you’ve got ourselves, Bromley are up there in the mix and as much as I know Varney came out with some silly comments the other day, I just think in the end it will get overturned.

“They’re crazy comments.

“The hardest thing for us is we go and watch teams away from home, even more so when we were Ryman and Conference South, and you’d look at a team and go, ‘Blimey, they go really long, they crash it, they go direct’ then they come here and all of a sudden they’re like Brazil, they’re popping it about everywhere.

“He’s talking absolute rubbish to be honest. I was a bit disappointed by comments like that because it’s just far from the truth but everyone’s got opinions and that’s what football is.

“You’ve got to remember, Ebbsfleet are very fortunate with the owners they’ve got. They can pay to have a nice training ground, they can keep throwing money at things and they don’t need 3G.

“We’re a well-run club and Terry (Casey) and Oliver (Ash) do it right. It was right for the club and for the business model to go 3G.”

The issue will come to a head if any of the 3G clubs are in the promotion mix at the end of the season but Maidstone players are unfazed by any uncertainty.

Saunders said: “It’s not been spoken about but players aren’t silly.

“I think they know if it went that way then certainly the right decision would come about.

"If it went to court and you stood there with a judge and said ‘I’m not being allowed to play on it in League 2 but England can play on it last week,’ then it’ll get overturned and that’s my belief.”