Reece Grant says the chance to work with Hakan Hayrettin again was the main reason he joined Maidstone.

Hayrettin is coming under pressure from a section of fans after a run of five defeats in six games in league and cup.

But striker Grant, who made his Stones debut as a second-half substitute in the 1-0 defeat by Slough, is backing his old Braintree boss to get Maidstone firing again.

“When results aren’t going your way it’s easy to point fingers and get on people’s backs but the gaffer’s experienced enough, he’s been in it a long time and we’ve got a good squad here,” said Grant, who has recovered from a pre-season knee injury.

“It’s always good to reunite with a manager you’ve done well under and someone who's helped you progress.

“He helped me kick on, so to come here and play for him was the main attraction and I could see the team he was building and it was exciting.

“We’ve got players who can make things happen out of nothing really.

“It’s a group I wanted to be involved in and a management team I’ve worked under before."

Results have slumped since Maidstone started the season with a seven-match unbeaten run in National South.

But that’s not the fault of the manager, according to Grant, who says the players have to step up.

“Hakan knows how to get the best out of players and he gives out good instructions,” added Grant.

“It’s just at the moment we’re not doing exactly what he’s asked of us, if we’re being honest.

“It’s not as if he says go out there and do what you want, we’ve got instructions and it’s not working for us at the moment.

“There’s nothing negative I can say.

“From Tuesday to Friday, we work hard on things, we’ve worked on a lot of stuff, we were doing it and then one lapse of concentration (against Slough) and we conceded.

“That’s not a management problem, that’s not a tactical problem, it’s the fact we’ve switched off as players and let in a goal and we’ve not done enough to put the ball in the net going the other way.

“We know as players we’ve got to do better and we know we’ve got to turn it around for the fans and for the gaffer.

“It’s not as if we’ve got a bad squad, we’ve got good players here, we’ve got good management staff, we’ve just got to all come together and grind out these results and change our fortunes.”

Grant won promotion from National South with Braintree three years ago.

He’s confident Maidstone have what it takes to come through their blip and do likewise.

“I totally believe we’ve got a changing room that can do the same thing,” said Grant.

“We have a good team and the right facilities - we’ve got everything going for us.

“We just need to click and it will drop for us.

“We’re going through a bad patch, we’ve just got to keep our heads high and get beyond it.”

Maidstone visit big-spending Havant this Saturday.

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