Maidstone won’t pay a fee for Whitstable defender Scott Heard.

The trialist played the second half of United’s friendly against Dagenham last weekend but the right-back has returned to the Belmont.

Stones boss Jay Saunders said: “I spoke to Whitstable’s manager, Will Graham, and basically said he’s one we’d take a gamble on but they want too much for him.

“If we take him we might work something out based on appearances but it’s one of them where I need to see more of him.

“He’s a contracted player and it was good of Whitstable to let us have a look at him.

“We’ll keep monitoring him but we’re not looking to pay a fee.

“We’ve got a few lads in the academy we can look at, so it’s not the end of the world.”