22nd December 2007. 9.30am

Alan Walker and Lloyd Hume continue to remain busy in signing new players to shore up The Stones’ injury depleted squad as two more new faces will appear in the squad for this afternoon's away game at Horsham .

After the unqualified success of Luis Cumbers’ spell with the club on a work experience basis, another Gillingham scholar has been signed. Danny Walder an 18 year old defender will be involved against The Hornets. Also signing on the dotted line in time for this weekend is 19 year old defender Bryan Glover. Glover who can play in any of the back four positions has played this season for Weymouth in the Blue Square National, Canvey Island in Ryman One North and one game for Sutton United in Blue Square South. He was also a member of the Chelmsford City side beaten 2-1 by Maidstone United in last season’s FA Trophy tie at Melbourne Park Stadium.

On the injury front, both Lee Shearer and Chris Smalling have recovered from their respective injuries and will be available for selection at Queen Street.

18th December 2007. 2.00pm

Maidstone United Chairman Paul Bowden-Brown revealed today he has received an offer from a French company to purchase 25% of the football club and lend funds to assist in the development of the club. The company is represented by a British director who is a keen supporter of the club's activities.

Although there is no official conclusion as yet, the club has agreed in principle to the offer and within the next few weeks everything should be in place and the new investor will then be announced.

Bowden-Brown said:
“We have been in discussions for over six months and when the offer was made it was an easy decision for me to make.  For the first time I had met someone who thinks the same as I do and is prepared to join the board of directors, become part of the club and work with us to bring the club home and build the new stadium.

"All the other prospective investors that we had spoken to had wanted 100% ownership and to be totally candid have not at this point put any concrete proposals forward.  This present offer will allow the club the financial cushion that we need at this time to complete our Football Foundation bid and be in a position to back that presentation up with a solid financial structure.

This offer is a tremendous boost to me personally at this particular moment and it could not have come at a better time."

14th December 2007. 10.30am

There was slightly more encouraging news for the Stones this week as Alex Tiesse returned from his loan spell at Leatherhead to be available for selection this Saturday.

In terms of the long-term injured, both Sam Tydeman and Lee Shearer could well return in a weeks time and Ben Lewis will have an injection next week which will allow him to train. Meanwhile Rob Owen emerged from Tuesday's game unscathed and was takn off as a result of tiredness and so looks set to start again on Saturday.

In terms of the goalkeepeing situation, Steve Northwood is available for selection this weekend should Pat Mullin fail to recover from his injury. However manager Alan Walker hoped that the situation of starting without a goalkeeper had been resolved; "Pat revealed to us on the night of the match that he had actually felt some pain as early as Monday but failed to inform Lloyd or myself. Had we known, we do have an agreement with Gillingham to use one of their youth keepers for emergency situations such as this, but as we were unaware of the situation there was little we could do. Thankfully when Steve Northwood was released last week from his previous club we were able to step in and offer him and opportunity with the club which will hopefully prevent any repeat of this."

Meanwhile Walker was hoping that the players would have something to prove against Hastings this Saturday; "We all know how badly we performed earlier on in the season at Hastings, where we had a situation where most of the players just simply didn't perform on the night, so hopefully they have something to prove this time around and will put right what went wrong last time around"

You can follow the game live with goal flash updates on the official site, but if you are away from a PC and can't make the game, don't forget you can get the goals straight to your phone via our goalflash alerts SMS service, click here for details.

Finally, Saturday's postponed match with Wealdstone which had been re-arranged to take place on Wednesday 6th February 2008 at 7-45pm has now been brought forward 24 hours to Tuesday 5th February.

12th December 2007. 5.10pm

Following the events at Heybridge Swifts on Tuesday evening where Stones were left without goalkeeping cover due to Pat Mullin’s injury breakdown during the pre-match warm up, Alan Walker and Lloyd Hume have moved quickly to sign another goalkeeper.

30 year old Steve Northwood joins the club from Redbridge having recently being released by The Motormen’s manager Dean Holdsworth. Northwood will be well known to Stones fans as he spent several seasons with Thamesmead Town in the Kent League before joining Cray Wanderers when they won promotion to the Isthmian League. This season he began the campaign with our midweek opponents Heybridge Swifts before moving to Redbridge.

Alan Walker was relieved to obtain Northwood’s signature. “Since Chris Peck moved on we have been actively looking for a replacement keeper but believe it or not, both our reserve and youth teams have also had goalkeeper cover issues. The youth team currently have a Charlton Athletic scholar on loan to cover their problems and he only joined the club on Monday.”

“I had been in discussions with a Polish goalkeeper who had come over to England to live but a couple of weeks ago he decided to go home to Poland for Christmas. Steve Northwood will offer some serious competition to Pat Mullin for his place which is something that this club and Pat need at this time, as competition for places is always healthy.”

11th December 2007. 7.30pm

If it doesn't rain it pours was an appropriate expression for the Stones this evening.

With the Stones struggling to put out a starting eleven, minutes before tonights game, goalkeeper Pat Mullin pulled up with what looked like a thigh strain. With him unable to run or even kick the ball, Stones were forced to turn to Lee Shearer as stand in goalkeeper, with our reserve keeper unable to travel this evening.

11th December 2007. 11.50am

Despite the enforced break at the weekend, injuries still continue to dominate team news as the Stones prepare for their visit to Heybridge Swifts this evening.

Sam Tydeman, Ben Lewis ond Lee Shearer remain on the injury list, whilst Rob Owen will undergo a late fitness test, but Alan Walker was anticipating that he would be a substitute at best. Returning to the squad will be Chris Smalling and Ashley Ulph after their weekend trials with England Schoolboys which wil be a welcome boost to the depleted squad, and loan signing Steffan Gaisi looks set to make his debut.

Finally, Saturday's postponed match with Wealdstone has now been re-arranged and will take place on Wednesday 6th February 2008 at 7-45pm. The club have also confirmed that our Boxing Day fixture at home to East Thurrock Utd will kick off at 3pm

10th December 2007. 8.00pm

During the summer of this year, Mario McNish was arrested for a serious offence that has taken a significant amount of time for the police to investigate. During that period, Maidstone United Football Club have supported the player, who has always been available for selection.

However, the police investigation has now concluded and as a result, Mario McNish has been charged.

Therefore, with immediate effect, Mario McNish will no longer be available for selection by Maidstone United.

Maidstone United Football Club will be making no further comment regarding this matter.

9th December 2007. 11.00pm

Sam Morrison, one of Maidstone United’s promising players, is heading to the renowned Lilleshall Sports Injury Rehab Centre – thanks to the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA).

Sam, known by his team-mates as Billy, suffered a serious leg injury whilst playing for Maidstone United’s championship-winning under18 team in May. After a time convalescing, he started on a light training regime and now, through PFA chairman Gordon Taylor, he will attend a four-day assessment programme from Monday (10 December).

For the past 10 years Lilleshall has worked closely with the Professional Footballers Association in providing sports injury rehab to players from Premiership level through to the lower reaches of the professional game.

Lilleshall’s specialist Sports Injury Rehab team have amassed a wealth of experience in dealing with long term, serious and recurrent injuries. The list of clients who have utilised Lilleshall’s specialist rehab service now runs into thousands. These include Olympic athletes, professional footballers, rugby players and cricketers.

Maidstone United General Manager Bill Williams said: “I contacted Gordon to see if the PFA would be prepared to fund this specialist advice and treatment and without hesitation he said yes. It is a wonderful gesture by the PFA and the club is delighted that Billy is able to get the best advice on the way forward for his recovery.”

Sam (pictured above with Stones chairman Paul Bowden-Brown) added: “The support I have received from Maidstone United, and in particular Bill Williams and Peter Nott, has undoubtedly had a huge contribution to the speed of my recovery. I would like to offer my personal thanks, not only for providing me with this fantastic opportunity but also for the support that I have been given throughout my rehabilitation.

“I am also very thankful for the kind comments I received when in hospital and from people on the message board. Hopefully I will soon be back playing in a Maidstone shirt.”

7th December 2007. 9.45am

Injuries will once again have an impact on Walker and Hume's team selection this weekend as the Stones travel to Wealdstone in the Ryman Premier League.

Sam Tydeman will require a fitness test before the game and the squad will also be without Ben Lewis, Lee Shearer, Mario McNish and Rob Owen. Another blow comes in the form of reserve players Ashley Ulph and Chris Smalling being away on England Schoolboy trials, leaving the squad down to its bare bones.

Thankfully Lynden Rowland and Errison Ahwan look to be fit for Saturday and Rob Lyall will be called up from the reserves, joining loan signing Steffan Gaisie.

6th December 2007 7.10pm

Stones made a further announcement today that Andy Martin had left the club to join Leatherhead. Martin confirmed his move this morning hence Alan Walker had to react quickly to get in Steffan Gaisie.

Speaking about his departure Walker said; "We received a 7 day approach for Andy a couple of weeks back but thought he would stay with the club, but the offer at Leatherhead was too good and he decided to quit the club this evening. Both Lloyd and myself were disappointed that he has chosen to leave, particularly after we stood by him early on in the season as he adapted to playing at our level. But he has decided to take up the offer of more money at Leatherhead and left us at a time when we are already struggling with injuries. Thankfully we were able to get one loan signing in today and we are hoping to annouce a further one or two tomorrow."

6th December 2007 3.15pm

With the squad looking seriously depleted, Alan Walker has brought in a loan signing from Bishop's Stortford in order to solve our problems up front.

18 year old forward Steffan Gaisi comes to the club on a month's loan and also brings a wealth of experience. Walker said;" He was a professional for three years with Southend and played several games there, and at Bishop's Stortford, their management felt he needed to get some match fitness, which are pretty much the same reasons as we sent Alex Tiesse out on loan, so that will be a big boost for us. Gaisi will be in the squad for Saturday's trip to Wealdstone.

4th December 2007. 11.25am

The Stones website is now back up and running and we hope to bring the site back up to date over the next 24 hours.

Unfortunately, our hosting company experienced some technical difficulties which meant we were unable to update the website from Thursday evening until this morning. However, those issues have now been resolved and we have now got both Saturday's match report, interview and poll online as well as the results of the 400 club November draw. Our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.