More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Hakan Hayrettin joked Maidstone were still drunk from title celebrations after losing at Welling on Bank Holiday Monday.
United went down 3-2 at Park View Road, two days on from clinching the National South crown, as the Wings secured safety.
Stones players celebrated at the Duke of Marlborough pub in the town centre on Saturday night after their win over Chelmsford before reporting for training in preparation for Welling on Sunday morning.
Hayrettin was desperate to keep Maidstone’s winning run going but, with the title in the bag, he could afford to have a little joke after the game.
“Some of them might still be intoxicated, because I know I am, but I’m the manager!” he said.
“We take it all in jest but we still wanted to win.”
Hayrettin was frustrated with the defending as Maidstone missed the chance to finish the season with a 100% record in Kent derbies.
Having completed doubles over Ebbsfleet, Dartford and Tonbridge, and beaten Welling at home, it was their chance to end with a perfect record.
But poor defending was punished as Welling took the points and secured their National South status at the expense of Billericay.
Hayrettin, who made four changes from the win over Chelmsford, said: “I’m not going to take anything away from Welling, it was a local derby, and I’ve just told them we need to defend better.
“Three long balls, three horrible goals.
“I wanted to win today, I didn’t come here to make the numbers up.
“We’ve made changes because we had to, and I wanted to have a look at other people.
“I wasn’t disappointed by that, I was just disappointed by three critical incidents in the game where we could have done better.
“I want to win, don’t I? I wanted to win all eight local Kent derbies. I don’t think anyone’s done that.
“We’ve won seven, we’ve done fantastically well, we’ve come here and fair play to Welling, they scored three goals against the championship-winning team and good luck to them.
“We need to do better really if I’m being totally honest but the job had already been done.”
Maidstone thought they’d rescued a late point when, at 2-1 down, Wings keeper Coniah Boyce-Clarke appeared to fumble the ball over the line.
Referee Michael Ryan waved play on and Welling added their third before a Stones consolation.
Hayrettin was convinced a goal should have been awarded and thought little of Ryan’s performance over 90 minutes.
“It’s about 3ft over the line and the keeper must have been taking 20/25 seconds every time he was supposed to take a goal-kick,” said the Stones boss.
“We had him at Slough and we had him today and I’m thinking, is it me or is it him? But it can’t be me because I know what I saw. I thought he was terrible.”
