A lifelong Maidstone fan will be in the away dugout at Ipswich Town as part of George Elokobi’s management team.

Jamie Hemsley finds himself involved in the biggest day in the Stones’ history - tomorrow’s FA Cup fourth-round tie - thanks to a university internship.

The 21-year-old works alongside Ben Fuller in the sports science department at the Gallagher Stadium, playing a crucial role in the well-being and fitness of the squad.

It’s a dream job for Loughborough student Hemsley, who has grown up supporting the Stones, being taken to games by dad Steve.

From the little kid watching Maidstone play in front of a few hundred fans in their groundsharing days at Sittingbourne, he now gets to walk out in front of almost 30,000 people at Portman Road.

“I’m absolutely buzzing and my dad can definitely back me up on that,” said Hemsley.

“I haven’t stopped talking about it all week.

“You have that angle as a fan for the whole occasion, and that’s crazy, but to be working on the day, it’s going to be an experience.

“It will be good to see how these big clubs operate because, with all due respect, we’re not Premier League or Championship level, so there are differences in how everything’s done.

“My mum and dad are coming, and a few of my friends.

“We’ll have loads of fans, it’s a massive stadium, a big club, a nice club, so it’s going to be a really special day.

“There’s been a few highlights this season in the FA Cup but this will top the lot, no matter the result.”

Things could have worked out differently for Hemsley, who would have been on his internship a year earlier had he started university when orginally planned.

But his A-level results, based on predicted grades during the Covid pandemic, weren’t enough for his sports science degree at Loughborough and so he took a year out to sit the exams and get what he needed.

Had he been at Maidstone last season, it would have been a very different experience with a miserable campaign ending in relegation.

“The whole palaver with the A-level results has actually worked out pretty well, otherwise I would have been doing this last year, with how bad everything was then,” said Hemsley.

“I might not necessarily have been at Maidstone but I could have been.

“Life throws you these curveballs.

“At the time it’s a bit of a nightmare and you’re wondering do you still want to go to university?

“But you persevere and I’ve probably gained more from taking a year out than going to university in the first place or settling for a place somewhere else.”

Working at Maidstone has given Hemsley a new appreciation of what goes on behind the scenes.

“You understand a lot more how a football club runs rather than just seeing it from a fan’s perspective,” he said.

“I would get frustrated at different things but now you realise the club might be working on it behind the scenes and it might be out of their control, and you also see just how hard people work.

“Some of the criticism is unjustified but obviously as a fan you just get frustrated.

“I am a fan, first and foremost, and it’s been really cool to be with the team.

“I’ve been going for years with my dad and having that extra view of things has been really interesting.”

Hemsley and Fuller work with the club’s medical team.

They bring players back to match fitness after injuries, take the pre-match warm-up, run gym sessions and have responsibility for nutrition.

The pair also monitor and track all the GPS data to advise manager George Elokobi on training loads for individual players, which could mean pulling someone out of a session to avoid injury.

Their roles are made easier by working with a forward-thinking boss in Elokobi, who embraces the benefits of sports science.

“Take one look at him and he’s clearly still into his fitness,” said Hemsley.

“It’s my first year in a role like this and he’s been there and done it with so many different fitness coaches over the years.

“He lets us get on with what we need to do but he also gives us a helping hand, which is welcome because he's a very big advocate of what me and Ben do.

“From speaking to people at university who work in professional football, it’s not always the case that a management team even listen to what we say.

“It boils down to an advisory role with us and if the management team don’t want to take on board what we say, it’s up to them.

“But the manager here is really good at listening to us and if the boys are taking a liberty, he’s not afraid to call people out over it.

“It’s all for their benefit. We’re not making this stuff up. It’s all objective data.”