Dan Sweeney returns to the Gallagher as Maidstone face League 2 Barnet in their opening pre-season friendly.

The sides meet on Saturday as part of the deal that took midfielder Sweeney to the Hive for an undisclosed fee last Christmas.

He divided opinion at United but scored the winning penalty in the play-off final at Ebbsfleet.

Maidstone boss Jay Saunders said: “I know he was a bit of a Marmite player for the supporters here but he was someone I thought had a good chance in the game and I still do.

“He’s been unlucky at Barnet. He’s had one or two managers since he’s been there, and he got injured, so it’s been stop-start.

“He’s got all the potential in the world. Whether he fulfils it is down to him.

“He’s someone I think was unfortunate with us as well. If he’d been in the side when Stuart Lewis and Reece Prestedge were here, it would have made a big difference to him.

“Before that, there was a lot of pressure on him and Jack Paxman in a league neither had played in.

“We always had an agreement with Dan that if a league club came in we would look at it.

“At the time, it probably enabled us to get a couple of players in, which helped, so it worked for all parties.

“If you speak to him he’s probably missing the place because he loved his time here.”

Saunders will field a different XI in each half against Barnet and plans to give a number of trialists a chance.

He said: “It’s too early for anyone to play more than 45 minutes. Ideally we’d have liked another week before this game but it’s the only time Barnet could do.”

Stones, who go to old Kent League rivals VCD on Tuesday, started daytime training this week.

The switch from two nights to three mornings has gone down well.

Saunders said: “I think you notice just how much sharper people are.

“When you’re training evenings and people have done a day’s work, you do notice the difference.

“I just think everyone’s a little fresher and a bit more switched on.

“With nights, if you had people getting stuck in traffic, you were conscious of keeping them too long, so there’s more freedom now.

“Daytime training will help in all different ways, no doubt about it, not that I think we were an unfit side last year.”