Maidstone conquered their early-season nerves to surprise Chester and claim their first win since promotion to the National League.

Blues boss Jon McCarthy had spoken of United as a direct side but they were anything but at the Deva on Saturday, playing their best football so far in a 3-1 victory.

Stones manager Jay Saunders said: "It wasn't a surprise to me. I know what we're capable of and I felt the last two games we looked very nervy.

"Against York we should have got three points but we were still nervous, didn't play enough football, and I saw in the week Jon had put that we're quite a direct team and, to be honest, we're not.

"We're normally far from it but the last couple of games when you're nervous sometimes the long ball is the easy option, and I think our young lads chose that.

"We came here, we spoke in the week at training and said we want to get back to what we're about, and that's getting it down and trying to play and creating stuff, and I thought we did that."

Anthony Acheampong headed Stones in front, with second-half goals from Ben Greenhalgh and Alex Flisher leading the visitors to victory.

Saunders said: "I thought it was a very good away performance.

"We played some good stuff at times and, if anything, I was just disappointed we conceded the goal because I think, other than that, we limited Chester to very few chances and we created quite a lot at the other end. All in all it's good three points for us."

Read the match report from Maidstone's 3-1 victory at Chester