REACTION | "We showed a side of our game that people probably didn't think we had"

Manager Stuart Maynard felt his side's fifth win of the season last night was their "best of the season".

The Stones showed not only great levels of endurance to back up the performance away at Wrexham three days earlier, but also terrific levels of resilience to twice recover from seeing their lead wiped out to win a five-goaler against Dover at Crabbie Stadium thanks to Jayden Sweeney's second of the game. Josh Umerah had put the Stones 2-1 in front with his seventh league goal of the season.

"We showed a side of our game that people probably didn't think we had," said Maynard. "We rolled out sleeves up on a difficult pitch and dug in. The lads showed so much grit and determination to grind out a win and it's massive, our best of the season. I'm so proud of the lads. We got here 20 minutes later than we would have liked because of the traffic, so to put in a performance like that was unbelievable."

"We are short on numbers, but it provides opportunities for others to come in. Busey has come back into the team and work his socks off. It's been tough for Jay Bird but he's come on and worked so hard. And Zach [Dronfield] came on and showed his quality, too. It's a collective effort."

The Stones have made no secret of the fact they are a possession-based team, but they had to show the other side of their game on a tricky pitch.

"The pitch was a massive leveller as we can't affect the game with our patterns," said Maynard. "We watched back Halifax's game and they are a technical team and struggled to pass it. You have to play no-risk football which we did."

The win lifts the boys up to 15th on the back of three wins and two draws in five games. Next up is the visit of Stockport to The Vale on Saturday – and Maynard is hoping for another crackling atmosphere in Ruislip.

"Stockport have got quality outside the squad as well as in it," he said. "They want to get out of this league and have invested heavily. It will be a big test and we'll have to put bodies on the line. It's going to be tough, but we'll recover from this one, dig deep and have a game plan ready for Saturday. We'll need the fans to get the Vale rocking again. They really drove us on tonight and gave us that extra push after they equalised for a second time. It was great to hear. They didn't stop singing."

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