Maidstone chief executive Bill Williams feels for Bury fans after the club were expelled from the Football League.

The Stones were the last club to drop out of the league when they went bust on the eve of the 1992/93 season, a few months after Aldershot went into liquidation.

Twenty-seven years had passed with plenty of near-misses but no further casualties until the Shakers' fate was sealed last night after a proposed takeover collapsed.

Williams left Maidstone for Gillingham - a move engineered by chairman Jim Thompson - shortly before they went bankrupt.

He'd been general manager before stepping in to take the team after Graham Carr's departure.

Williams knows exactly how Bury fans are feeling.

He said: "The loss of the club was dreadful. It was more potent because I was inside looking out for a long time and I could see it every day. I knew we had big problems.

"When you're inside looking out and you can't make things work, it's an awful feeling.

"It doesn't just affect all the people who work at the ground, who lose their livelihood, it hits the supporters who go every week.

"It knocks them off their feet and it affects the whole community because come Saturday there's that emptiness and that feeling of having nowhere to go for all those thousands of people who would most likely support their local club. It's terrible.

"In this day and age I don't know why no one has been able to save Bury.

"The debt must be horrendous and that is down to bad management.

"Somebody's had a look and done their due diligence and it's obviously not feasible, so the debt must be huge."

With mounting debts and the club playing home matches at Dartford, the writing was on the wall for Maidstone after the council rejected planning permission for a new stadium at Hollingbourne in 1991.

The Stones managed to see out the season but were never going to survive beyond that with their plight descending into farce amid talk of relocating to Newcastle as part of a rescue package.

Williams said: "Everybody's hearts sank into their shoes when the council turned down planning permission for the stadium.

"It was that feeling of hopelessness where there's nothing you can do. It was an awful time.

"Once that happened I knew it was goodnight for the club.

"Jim got rid of me just before it went under but I knew what was going to happen.

"He was having meetings with Newcastle Browns and all this nonsense and there was talk of relocating up there but I knew it was never going to happen.

"It was a desperate time and not a very happy time."

Maidstone reformed as Maidstone Invicta and made their way through local leagues before regaining senior status with promotion to the Kent League in 2001.

They almost went bust a second time under former chairman Paul Bowden Brown before Oliver Ash and Terry Casey completed their takeover and opened the Gallagher Stadium in 2012.

Williams said: "Look how long it took us to get back.

"You go back to Paul Bowden Brown and the people who supported him, putting money in to keep the club alive.

"Thank God we have Terry and Oliver who decided to take the debt out of the club and take us to where we are now. We're very fortunate to have them."

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