Maidstone United manager George Elokobi has restored a winning culture at the Gallagher Stadium | Players leaving club will be treated with respect and empathy

George Elokobi says the winning culture is back at Maidstone as he looks to go a step further next season.

The Stones’ promotion hopes ended in the National League South semi-finals at Worthing on Sunday, losing 2-1 to an 89th-minute goal.

But the place has been transformed since the misery of last season’s National League relegation.

It needed some lifting after the Stones went five months without winning a league game during a disastrous campaign.

And Elokobi has delivered in his first full season in management, guiding a new-look squad to fourth place, the FA Cup fifth round and Kent Senior Cup success.

That’s benefited both the club and the town, according to Elokobi.

“As a management team, when we set out on rebuilding the Stones, we knew how we wanted to do it,” he said.

“We knew it was going to take time in terms of having a short, medium and long-term project and it was about making sure this club could believe again.

“It was about making sure we have a winning culture at Maidstone United Football Club but more importantly have a winning culture in Maidstone as a community and we’ve got that.

“It’s our group of players and it’s the community as a whole.

“We’ve inspired so many to be great at whatever their aspirations are.

“Through football you can inspire so many, you can motivate so many, you can touch so many lives and I think we’ve done that this season.

“We’re bound to continue again next season and as a football club we just keep building and progressing.

“Football belongs to the community and George Elokobi as a manager has ensured that is in place at Maidstone and that will carry on at Maidstone as long as I’m the manager.”

Inevitably there will be changes to the squad as Maidstone look to build on this