George Elokobi’s Maidstone United side are about to make history but he is not a happy man. “We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and, as a manager, I start with myself,” the usually mild-mannered Elokobi says after a costly 2-0 defeat at Aveley on Monday in National League South, English football’s sixth tier. “Did I pick the right team? Did I pick the right personnel? Have I been too loyal? I have to look at that.”
This Monday Maidstone will become the first team from outside the top five divisions since Blyth Spartans in 1978 to play in the FA Cup fifth round. They have never made it this far and a trip to Coventry, who have Championship playoff aspirations, awaits. At Aveley a healthy proportion of the 709 spectators were Maidstone fans but 5,000 of them will be at Coventry. For the club that went bankrupt in 1992 and was forced to start again in the fourth division of the Kent County League, the tie will be another proud moment in a long journey back from oblivion. In the words of some of those who made it possible, here is their remarkable story.
