Hakan Hayrettin is confident Maidstone will be in the promotion shake-up - as long as his players keep listening.

Head coach Hayrettin and head of football John Still are getting their message across, with the Stones suffering only one defeat in their past eight games.

During that run they've thrashed Chelmsford, recorded impressive away wins at Concord and Dulwich and last weekend held a Havant side who boast the only unbeaten record in National South.

They were better than Havant for large parts of the 2-2 draw and Hayrettin, whose side visit Isthmian Premier champions Dorking this Saturday, is encouraged by what he's seen so far.

He said: "We'll be there or thereabouts, as long as the players keep listening to us.

"I'm sure everyone has seen a lot of improvement and we need to continue it.

"It's a different group of players and a different sort of belief.

"Last year we were down the bottom looking up and this year we're hoping to push and stay up the top.

"It's a different mindset and we've tried to recruit the best we can for the club.

"John's mentioned there will be changes during the season but that won't be because these players aren't good enough, we just have to do what's right for the club.

"We need to show consistency in every game.

"If it's working hard, if it's quality, if it's with and without the ball, as long as we can get all those qualities consistently, then we'll be fine.

"Against Havant we showed a lot of consistency, we deserved a point and I thought we thoroughly deserved to get all three."

Maidstone's work rate in particular has caught the eye.

Win, lose or draw, there's been no lack of effort, with players giving everything for their bosses.

Hayrettin said: "It's a good bunch of lads. I've got no complaints about any of the boys.

"There's no cracks or creaks or cancerous cells in there.

"Like I've always said since I've been here, empathy for the badge is very important, and togetherness, and I think that will get you a lot of points during the season.

"We did our homework on the players we signed.

"We're not going to get every single one right but we'll get 90% right and we just need to keep building on that.

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"Getting that hard work out of them comes from man-management and I think we're very good at that.

"John's been doing this job 40 years - his experience is second to none - and I've been doing it 20 or 25 years, maybe a bit more.

"There's a lot of years of experience and knowledge that we can find ways to get the best out of people."

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