Maidstone Squad Better This Season Reckons Saunders

The Stones finished their pre-season campaign with a comfortable 3-0 win over Southend United's U21s yesterday.

Maidstone finished 14th in their debut National League season last season and have made 11 new signings this summer.

They kick-off the new season with a home fixture against newly promoted Maidenhead United on August 5th, and manager Saunders is eyeing a play-off finish.

"This league will be harder than last season, there's no doubting that," he told the club's website. "There's no easy games, we'll see how we go and try and get a good start. Our aim is to break into the top six, I'm not saying it's going to happen, it's going to be tough. At the beginning of last season, I said we'd want to try and finish in the top 10, we just fell short of that.

"I'd think to think with the squad we've got this year, a lot more know-how about us, we'll have a little bit more consistency about us and I think that's key.

"If you compare the squad from this time last season, no disrespect to anyone that was here, this squad is a lot stronger. There's no doubt about that.

"In an attacking sense, we've got a lot more options. All over the park we look stronger but so does the league, so we have to be."