More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Maidstone United have fined Justin Amaluzor, Iffy Allen and Ibrahim Olutade a week’s wages for persistent lateness.
That’s the end of the matter for head of football John Still, who says he hopes the club’s actions will serve as a “kick up the backside” to “three good lads”, having initially cast doubt on their future at the Gallagher.
Amaluzor, Allen and Olutade arrived late for the Stones’ Kent Senior Cup tie against Dartford a fortnight ago - missing the team meeting - and were dropped from the squad.
All three had been due to start and Maidstone lost the second-round tie 1-0 without them.
Still said: “As far as I’m concerned that’s the end of the matter and we move on.
“I think I have to make this clear, more than me and Hak, it’s the players that brought this to our attention, that they were late too often, so we kept an eye on it and then they were late for a game.
“They’re young men but they need to understand that being late has an effect on themselves, their team, the supporters and the result of a football match because they were three players who were going to play in that game.
“As far as I’m concerned it affected everything and I don’t think it’s right, I really don’t.”
Still and head coach Hakan Hayrettin discussed the players’ future in the days after the Dartford match before deciding a fine was the most appropriate action.
“When something like this happens, you have to talk about the situation,” said Still.
“Everyone’s going to be late now and again because of the motorways. We understand that.
“If two or three people who aren’t normally late phone in and say, ‘look, I’m stuck on the bridge’, or ‘the bridge is closed’, I get that, you can’t do anything about that.
“It’s the same people being late all the time that’s the issue here.
“They’re three good lads, I haven’t got a problem with them, but they’ve got to be on time and we hope what we’ve done will perhaps give them a kick up the backside.
“We discussed all options but they are good lads and we didn’t want to do something that’s perhaps over-extreme.”
After back-to-back postponements, Maidstone return to action at home to Braintree in National League South this Saturday.
The game pits Hayrettin, who celebrated his 50th birthday this week, against his former club.
