Saidou Khan was never going to be fazed lining up against Blackpool's former Liverpool man Jay Spearing - because he'd never heard of him.

Spearing made 30 Premier League, Champions League and Europa League appearances for the Reds between 2008 and 2013 before becoming a first-team regular at Bolton.

The 31-year-old has also chalked up a century of appearances for Blackpool and captained them in Sunday's FA Cup second-round tie against Maidstone.

Stones head coach Hakan Hayrettin felt Khan was better than Spearing on the day.

That was some compliment, given the career Spearing's enjoyed, but he was just another player as far as the Stones midfielder was concerned.

Khan said: "To be fair, coming into the game I didn't know who Jay Spearing was!

"I just went out and tried to be myself.

• Earn yourself a deal

"I didn't care who I was playing against or whatever was put in front of me, I just played and enjoyed it.

"They've got 11 players, we've got 11 players, they train full-time, we train full-time.

"We've got nothing to fear, we've just got to go out and express ourselves."

Khan scored a stunning opener as Maidstone took the lead against their League 1 opponents but Blackpool hit back with three goals at the start of the second half.

He'll always remember his goal but it was overshadowed by the result as Maidstone missed out on a place in round three.

Khan said: "As soon as it bounced, I thought this is it, just hit it, and luckily it went in the goal. It was amazing.

"It was a good goal but I'll think about the result when I look back because if we beat them no one knows who we could have had in the next round.

"We could have had Man United or Arsenal away."

Khan is in great form but remains level-headed amid all the compliments coming his way.

He said: "I read it and get excited for five minutes and then I think you've got to do it again next week.

"If you don't perform the next week everyone forgets about what happened last week, so you've got to keep going game by game.

"First five minutes you try and get yourself into the game and then as it goes on, you try and do more and more.

"You've got to fight your way through and get to a point where you feel comfortable and can play your own football."

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