Hakan Hayrettin’s faith in his promotion-winning squad was rewarded as Maidstone beat fellow National League new boys York in a thrilling finish.

Hayrettin took a different approach to City boss John Askey over the summer, largely sticking to the squad who got United up, while his opposite number made big changes.

Continuity won the day at the Gallagher in a 2-1 comeback win over an ambitious York side who have been tipped to challenge for another promotion.

Sam Corne scored on 79 and 81 minutes as the Stones continued last season’s habit of scoring late goals.

The hard work Hayrettin requires of his players was evident again as they ground down York in blistering 33-degree heat.

“I demand my players work hard, regardless of their ability, and if they work hard then they’ve got a chance of success,” said the Stones boss.

“Most of our players have tasted this level of football, some of them not as consistently as they wanted, but they’ve all tasted it.

“Now, that taste, and that desire and that determination, they’ve got to have that again and they will, because I won’t let them do it any other way.

“People can talk about York, and York are a formidable team, they’ve made 16/17 changes this year.

“The manager decided the lads that he had, he needed to make wholesale changes.

"I, on the other hand, decided to go the other way and keep faith with what I had and build on it and today we saw the product of that.

“I’m so proud to be this team’s manager and I’m so proud that they respond to my every instruction.

“We set standards, everyone’s got standards, everyone’s got targets and everyone must adhere to them.

“It’s not about the individual, it’s about the team. When the team does well, the individual flourishes.”

• Report: Maidstone 2-1 York

Maidstone, showing three changes to the side who drew at Altrincham on the opening day, trailed to Lenell John-Lewis’ early header and saw Jack Barham miss a penalty..

But they refused to give in and made it four points from two games with Corne cashing in twice from Roarie Deacon assists.

“I thought it was a good performance all round,” said Hayrettin. “I don’t think we were fazed.

“I watched the highlights last week of York (2-0 win over Woking), I listened to BT Sport and they said they were one of the favourites to be contenders for the play-offs.

“But, again, the ethos we have here, you’ve got to work harder than the opposition and I think we definitely did that today and we grinded it out and we could have been three but we’ve missed a penalty.

“It was a penalty, by the way, I know their manager was a bit dubious but it was a definite penalty.

“Obviously we weren’t happy with the goal we conceded because we worked on certain things all week, we know who their danger was, but to bounce back and win in the manner and professionalism we did was exceptional.

“Everybody has played their part in getting the boys to a level where we need to be.

“The heat for everybody today was very difficult and no different for us.

“When they came for a water break I said, 'listen, we need to pick the pace up now, now we need to grind them down' and that’s exactly what we did.

“I made the substitutions at the right time and it came good.

“I’m over the moon for Sam and Roarie.

“I know what Roarie’s capable of doing and he’s done it again, he’s played at this level and so has Sam, they know what to expect."