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Maidstone United head of football John Still points to lack of quality in goalless draw with Chippenham Town

John Still felt Maidstone lacked the quality to beat Chippenham on Tuesday night.

The sides drew 0-0 in difficult conditions at the Gallagher Stadium and head of football Still felt it was a fair result.

Maidstone United head of football John Still Picture: Andy Jones
Maidstone United head of football John Still Picture: Andy Jones

He said: "Chippenham worked tremendously hard and we had to work hard to stay with it.

"We needed to come up with a little bit of quality, like we showed at Oxford on Saturday.

"I don't think there were too many goalscoring opportunities but that's a fair result in difficult conditions for both teams.

"To win games like that you just need a touch of quality.

"We had injuries but I don't want to use that as an excuse.

"Everyone worked hard - well done - but we didn't have enough quality.

"Whatever side we put out, someone's got to provide that little bit of quality.

"It's easy to find reasons why you haven't but I think you've got to find reasons why you could have and I think we need to point some things out to the players.

"Although we lacked quality, some of our play wasn't down to lacking quality, it was down to concentration levels as well."

Key midfielder Saidou Khan missed out with a knee injury picked up in Saturday's win at Oxford.

Maidstone switched to a back three in his absence and Still is unsure how long he will be out.

He said: "We don't think it's terrible but knees are sometimes the longest things to settle down.

"We don't think it will be long-term but we need a few days to find out."

Dan Wishart makes progress down the left for Maidstone against Chippenham Picture: Andy Jones
Dan Wishart makes progress down the left for Maidstone against Chippenham Picture: Andy Jones

Jake Embery, Jonny Edwards, Ibby Akanbi and Sam Corne were also out injured while Cameron James has returned to Colchester following his one-month loan spell.

With Zihni Temelci on board in midfield, United decided not to extend James' stay.

Still said: "Cameron's come to play and we couldn't guarantee that.

"I'm not massive on loans. If you've got a problem, yes, but I'd sooner find our own players."

Meanwhile, Still paid tribute to Jim Smith, the former Oxford, Derby and Portsmouth manager, who died on Tuesday aged 79.

Smith, like Still, spent more than 40 years in management, also taking charge at Newcastle and QPR in a hugely successful career.

"I knew Jim very well," said Still. "He worked with Harry Redknapp at Portsmouth, which is how I got to know him.

"He was a larger-than-life character, a proper football person, I'm really sad to hear he's died."

Still recalled a story from the Dagenham's Conference championship season of 2007 when they scored a 90th-minute equaliser away to Smith's Oxford.

It preserved the Daggers' 11-point lead over Oxford at the top of the table and had Smith reaching for the water bottles.

"We were 11 points in front of them and they had to beat us to get in the frame and we drew with the last kick of the game," said Still.

"He picked up the water bottle carrier and tried to throw them but he couldn't get the thing out of his hand! It was only funny afterwards."

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