Saunders free to plot for next season
Jay Saunders finally has the luxury of being able to plan for a new season. Two play-off campaigns and a final-day title triumph have kept the Stones boss busy over the last few years. But with Maidstone’s 1- 0 win over Boreham Wood guaranteeing National League football with three games left, he can think about next season and the transition to full-time football. Lee Worgan, Tom Mills, Alex Flisher and Jack Paxman are the only players with contracts for 2017-18, so there’s plenty of work ahead. Saunders intends to sit down with co-owners Oliver Ash and Terry Casey and chief executive Bill Williams to plot the way forward. He said: “We’ve only got four players under contract for next year so there’s a lot of planning to do. “It now gives us an opportunity for me, Terry, Oliver and Bill to sit down and see what we’re going to do. “We will have three mornings a week training so we can start planning that and actually start speaking to the players. It’s been difficult trying to talk to players when you don’t know what league you’re going to be in.” Eight wins and three draws in their last 12 matches have eased Maidstone to safety. Saunders always kept the faith, even after dropping into the bottom four. He’s pleased to be able to reward the owners after £1million investment to build the North Stand and replace the 3G pitch. Saunders said: “I remember sitting in the office with Terry and Bill and Terry said, ‘do you think we can stay up?’ and I was confident we could. “I knew we needed to get two or three players in. At one point, when you go eight without a win, you do start to think it’s going to be a long season but when we did drop in the bottom four we weren’t in there for long. “I know Terry and Oliver have been great and have never put us under pressure and said we’ve got to stay up but you feel a pressure because you think after everything they’ve done you want to give something back.”