Maidstone boss John Still felt Weymouth deserved their late winner on the opening day of the National South season.

Ben Thomson’s double, including an 88th-minute header, saw the Terras come from a goal down to win 2-1 at the Gallagher yesterday.

Weymouth, promoted as Southern League champions, played with the confidence of a team with a title behind them while a United XI showing 10 new faces are still getting to know each other.

The Stones showed quality in patches, and led through Justin Amaluzor after good work by Jonny Edwards.

They appeared to have seen off what Weymouth had to offer but Thomson’s leveller sparked another push from the visitors and they returned to Dorset with three points.

Head of football Still said: “I think it might have been fair. I think so, if I’m honest.

“First half I thought we were not very collective.

“We were good in spells but took too long getting into front people and didn’t really function in midfield.

“We got a goal, a good goal, and I thought we actually controlled the game for a while.

“I thought that was the first time we actually controlled the game but their goal was so soft.

• Report: Maidstone 1-2 Weymouth

“From that minute on I’m not going to dispute that maybe they deserved to get the winning goal.

"I've got no real insight into the winning goal other than it looked like a free header too close to our goal, which is poor.

“I thought when we attacked, we attacked good, but not enough players played to the standard or the level for us to say we’re going to win games consistently.”

Still stressed in pre-season it would take time for a new side to settle and he made the point in his team-talk.

He said: “I said to the players before the game, if any of you think this is going to be perfect today, go on my experience, it’s not going to be perfect.

“But what we have to do is make sure we compete, make sure we work hard and make sure we move the ball quickly.

“By and large we tried to do that but the people we would want to pass the ball for us today never passed it as well as they could.”

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