More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
John Still is on a mission to help Maidstone rejoin Gillingham in the Football League one day.
The clubs meet in the Kent Senior Cup semi-finals at the Gallagher tonight, with Still confident United are capable of reaching the big time again.
The league rivalry lasted only three seasons after Maidstone went bust in 1992 but head of football Still has ambitions to see his club rise again.
Still, who led the Stones to the Football League in 1989, said: "That's something we've got to try and do again, try and find a way of getting this club back up there.
"It can get in the league again, absolutely.
"This is football and there's no rhyme or reason to football sometimes.
"We feel we have to rebuild the football club and in our rebuilding that's got to be our aim.
"It might not be in my direct involvement but I think we can recreate the pathway.
"When I first came here, their ambition was to try and get in the league and we got in the league.
"Dagenham, a much smaller club in terms of support, got in the league.
"Luton, a massive club, couldn't get back in the league but we went in there and got back in the league.
"Small businesses can become big businesses if they're run properly so we're going to try and recreate that.
"That's really what I want to do.
"When I came back I didn't come to jog along, I came to try and recreate what we did before.
"I accepted that, where we were, it was going to be a long road but if I can get us on the right road I can sit back and enjoy watching it unfold along the way."
Maidstone beat Gillingham in last season's Kent Senior Cup quarter-finals en route to lifting the trophy.
They meet for a place in the final this time with Maidstone likely to name a similar side to the one who faced Wrexham on Saturday.
Still said: "It's a local derby so whether you play them in a friendly, a league game, a cup game, you want to win local derbies.
"We haven't got many players, so it'll be a pretty similar team, but there'll be one or two changes probably."
