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Danny Kedwell has spoken about the dressing-room showdown that led to his Maidstone exit.
You could be forgiven for forgetting Kedwell even played for the Stones, such is the level of stick he’s copped from their fans over that missed penalty for Ebbsfleet in the 2016 play-off final.
But if things had been different who knows how long Kedwell would have spent with United en route to the Football League career that seemed inevitable.
Jim Ward, the manager who signed him from Lordswood in the summer of 2003, predicted Kedwell would go all the way.
The Scot had been sacked by the time Kedwell was unceremoniously booted out of Maidstone with Mal Watkins and Alan Walker in charge.
Walker had got wind that Kedwell had been training at Chatham - it wasn’t actually true - but kept it under his hat until laying into him on match day in front of the rest of the squad.
That was it for Kedwell at Maidstone, who recalled the 2004 bust-up after returning to Kent League level - now Southern Counties East - with Hollands & Blair.
He said: “I was probably only there five or six games after Walks came in - maybe not even that.
“My best mate - now my brother-in-law - played for Chatham Town and we were always hanging around.
“I was round his house and he said ‘I’ve got training tonight’ so I said I’d come up and watch.
“I joined in this game at the end because they didn’t have enough players but I hardly touched the ball, I had my trainers on, I was just walking around.
“I was sat in the changing room before our game on the Saturday and Walks was asking everyone if they’d done anything in the week.
“I said ‘no’ and he was like, ‘you liar, you were training at Chatham’.
“I said I wasn’t, that I was watching, and they asked me to join in at the end.
“He told me get out the changing room and that was the end of my time at Maidstone.
“It was a bit shocking, to be fair, right in front of everyone.
“He could have taken me to the side, asked what I was playing at and I would have explained what happened.”
There was no lasting damage to the pair’s relationship with Kedwell and Walker good pals these days.
“I see Walks now, he’s a good mate of mine,” said Kedwell.
“I asked him, ‘why did you do that?’ and he said it was heat of the moment.
“I said to him, ‘you idiot’.
“I’d literally been standing there all session watching my pal train and they said ‘jump in, Keds’ at the end to help out.
“He said, ‘I know, mate, it was heat of the moment’.
“It wasn’t even Chatham Town’s first team - it was the reserves.”
