Ben Greenhalgh was just waiting for the chance to rejoin Maidstone and says it feels different this time.

Greenhalgh is back for a third stint at the Gallagher after a successful season with Concord Rangers, scoring 18 goals and setting up many more, playing behind the main striker.

He operated as a left-winger in his first two spells with United but manager Jay Saunders intends to use his skill and trickery through the middle in the National League.

Greenhalgh, 24, said: “There was no hesitation coming back.

“I did grab quite a bit of interest from having a good season last year and had a lot of Conference clubs and Conference South clubs ringing up.

“But there was only one call I was waiting on and that was Jay.

“He’d mentioned just before the end of the season, before the play-offs, that the playing style had changed and he was interested in getting me in that No.10 role.

“As soon as that came about, that was the only thing in my mind.”

Greenhalgh first joined Maidstone from Ebbsfleet in January 2013 but was soon on his way to Inverness in the Scottish Premier League. He returned to the Gallagher a year later only to be released after Maidstone won the Ryman League.

It surprised some to see Saunders go back for a player he had let go a year earlier but Greenhalgh said: “The way I look at it, it makes a lot of sense because in the Ryman Prem it was a case where it didn’t suit me as much.

"We had to get results out of some bad pitches and it was a tough to work your way into a team where it was a different route of football."

Greenhalgh wants to make the No.10 role his own.

He said: "I’d hope to try and stake a claim for that position, I don’t really want to get back out on the wing but there might be times when we do swap things up.”

Don't miss your five-page Stones season preview in Friday's Kent Messenger.