A record crowd of almost 4,200 will see Maidstone celebrate five years at the Gallagher Stadium against Crystal Palace.

New Eagles boss Frank de Boer was due to bring his first-team squad down for a 1pm kick-off on Saturday before flying to Hong Kong for the Asia Trophy.

But it's now unclear how many household names will be involved after de Boer said yesterday he wanted to have a look at the club's under-23s.

The friendly was arranged when Sam Allardyce was still in charge but the appointment of Barcelona and Holland legend de Boer adds another dimension, whoever plays.

Stones boss Jay Saunders said: “It’s great that Frank de Boer’s coming here and hopefully Palace enjoy it.

“I’ve got memories of him. I was obviously an Arsenal fan and we had Dennis Bergkamp so whenever Holland were on I always used to watch.

“He was a great player, him and his brother, Ronald. It’ll be good to meet him.

“It’s going to be a great occasion.

“Palace have got a lot of quality players, no matter who they bring, and it’ll be a good test for us.

“I’m looking forward to the atmosphere, too.

“It’s another milestone, a record crowd over 4,000 and it’ll be great for the lads.

“You’re playing a Premier League team and we can go out and enjoy it.”

Maidstone played Brighton in their first-ever match at the Gallagher on July 14 2012, Gus Poyet’s Championship side winning 5-0.

Saunders said: “That Brighton game seems a long time ago.

“I think I was a little bit nervous - probably one of the only times I’ve been nervous as a manager.

“I don’t know why because there was no pressure on us but I suppose it was just the fact there had been so much hype around it.

“If you look around, as a club and as a stadium, we’ve moved on a long way since then.

“When you look at the old pictures, it’s amazing how much it’s changed.”

As for Saunders’ favourite game at the Gallagher, it has to be the televised FA Cup replay against Stevenage when Frannie Collin’s late header sent Stones into the second round.

He said: “It was such a big game and the first time we’d been on TV, a sell-out evening game against a Football League club.

“If you’d said when I first took over and we were playing at Sittingbourne that we’d be here and beating a league club on TV, no one would have believed it.”