Jay Saunders hailed the impact of his loanees as Maidstone climbed straight back out of the bottom four.

Delano Sam-Yorke scored while Stuart Lewis and Reece Prestedge were excellent in midfield as Stones beat Torquay 2-1 on Saturday.

The trio have brought much-needed experience to Maidstone's National League survival bid.

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Boss Saunders said: "I was saying before the game to Nicky Southall (Stones assistant) that normally I come in and go, ‘cor, we’re young today’ but today you’ve got Bobby-Joe Taylor, Tom Mills and Jack Paxman and everyone after that has played this level or above.

"So it’s the first time we’ve had real experience this year, which was nice. I’m not taking anything away from the young lads but it was nice to have that.

"Stuart Lewis, I thought he came in and added real energy and bite to the midfield alongside Reece, which allowed Pax to have more of an influence going forward, and I thought Delano took his goal well and he was a real handful."

Maidstone were by far the better team in front of a full house of 2,455 at the Gallagher, creating stacks of chances, but it took a late penalty save from Lee Worgan to secure victory.

Saunders added: "You always fancy Lee. He’s obviously got a good record for us and I’m pleased he saved it because if I’m honest with you, if we hadn’t come away with three points I think it would have been a travesty because for large parts of the game I felt we dominated it and were the better side. We got what we deserved.

"I'm pleased with the performance. I thought the workrate was superb, plenty of energy in the team and if we’re creating those chances then I think we’ll win more games than we lose."

Maidstone climbed out of the bottom four at the expense of Woking, whose game against Tranmere was postponed.

They're up to 20th, a point clear of trouble and also only a point behind Torquay.

Saunders said: "I said in the press I just felt if we could get a win today it pulls Torquay into it, it gets us out of the bottom four, albeit I know Woking have got a game in hand, but I just think it was important.

"We needed that. I think we made very hard work of it but I’m delighted to get the three points."

Read the match report from Maidstone's 2-1 win over Torquay