Elokobi’s ‘big apology’ as standards drop
Manager George Elokobi apologised to Maidstone fans after an “embarrassing” performance against Truro on Saturday.
The Stones lost 3-1 to a City side playing their fourth game in six days.
It was a potentially costly defeat for Elokobi’s side, with hopes of progressing straight to the National League South play-off Semi-Finals out of their hands.
They could still take third on the final day but otherwise will face a home eliminator first. Elokobi said: “I’m going to be brutally honest, I’m really embarrassed by our performance.
“Our supporters have been magnificent, they’ve turned up in their numbers and that wasn’t good enough.
“A big apology to our supporters because they deserve more. “I’m not discrediting Truro they were good, they were effective - but our players need to look at themselves.”
Tyler Harvey scored twice, including a penalty, with Danny Sullivan also on target before Raphe Brown’s lastminute consolation.
Maidstone had won seven of their previous eight games but complacency crept in.
Elokobi said: “From the start of the game there wasn’t any meaning or purpose to our play and we got what we deserved. We deserved to be on the losing side and probably by more.
“It’s taught me there’s work to be done and also we’ve got to take this defeat and make sure we learn from it fast.
“I know some might look at it and say you’ve been on this fantastic run but we’ve been shown if you don’t turn up on the day, you get beat. “We didn’t have the right mentality from the first second to the last minute.
“From Tuesday, the management team has been reminding our players of the magnitude of this game up to the point where on Friday in training I was firm, I was hard on them because I saw glimpses of it (complacency).
“My job as a manager is to make sure I keep my players consistent in what we do but our standards dropped in training. I could see it and I brought it to the attention of our players.”