Hare: We’ll be raring to go
Josh Hare has urged his Maidstone team-mates to put tiredness out of their minds.
Stones needed extra-time to beat Enfield Town in the FA Cup and now face long trips to AFC Fylde on Saturday and FC Halifax on Tuesday.
Hare, who returned from a groin injury at Enfield, said: “It’s not ideal but it’s a bigger squad than it was at the start of the season and Jay (Saunders, boss) will have to think about using it.
“When it goes back to five subs – it’s been seven in the FA Cup – there’ll be a couple of players unhappy but that’s just the way football works.
“We need to put the FA Cup out of our minds and forget we’ve had 120 minutes.
“It’s probably more of a mental thing than anything else. You’ve just got to get in your head that you’re fit and ready to go.
“Going through makes it easier and there’s a good first-round tie at Cheltenham to look forward to.”
It was Hare’s first appearance since injuring his groin in the win at Eastleigh a month ago.
In his rush to return, he had a setback at training but is now fully fit and ready to challenge Seth Twumasi for the rightback shirt. Hare said: “It was a bit frustrating, I feel like I could have been back a bit sooner but ended up putting myself out a bit longer.
“Seth’s done great. That wasn’t the reason I was trying to get back quickly, it was more the fact I wanted to play, simple as that.
“I wanted to get back training and pushed myself a little bit too much. It feels fine now. I was happy to do 90 minutes and then when it went to extratime I was thinking ‘will I get through?’ but it was fine.
“Doing 120 minutes after a groin injury isn’t the easiest. I started to cramp up at the end but it wasn’t too bad.”
Hare is the man in possession but knows he’ll have to be on his game to stay in the side.
He said: “I’m trying to keep the consistency up. That’s one thing I’d probably have said about myself last year. “I was good every couple of games and then I’d have one where I’d drop a bit, where I’d had my longterm injury and it was my first year back.”