SAUNDERS HOLDS TALKS WITH STRIKER

Joe Pigott could put his Football League career on hold to stay with hometown club Maidstone. we want to keep and we’ll get others we weren’t expecting to get.”

Saunders met with co-owners Terry Casey and Oliver Ash and chief executive Bill Williams on Tuesday morning.

They spoke about the switch to full-time football and budgets and players. Further talks are planned but Saunders is free to push on with strengthening.

He said: “As always, we’ll get our lads sorted first and once we’ve done that, we’ll speak to others.

“We’ve got a lot of targets in mind. I want to improve.We need to improve a lot although we’ve done unbelievably well. It would be nice to keep some of the loan players but there’s still players I would like to get in.”

Maidstone – on a run of one defeat in 14 games – could finish as high as 10th if they beat Tranmere at home in the final match of the season on Saturday (12.15pm).

Their surge to safety and the switch to daytime training will only help in the transfer market. Saunders said: “When you finish higher up in the league, you seem a more attractive proposition.

“There’s a couple of players I’m keen to get done quite early and I know they’ve been here and watched and been impressed with the set-up.”