‘Hale End was Harvard of academies – now I’m at Maidstone making FA Cup historical past’

Maidstone United can be trying to do the unthinkable once more of their FA Cup fifth spherical tie in opposition to Coventry City this night.

The Stones have confirmed that the magic of the cup remains to be alive this season, profitable all seven of their matches on the earth’s oldest cup competitors. George Elokobi’s sixth tier facet carried out one in all this century’s greatest upsets final month after they defeated Championship promotion chasers Ipswich Town 2-1 away from dwelling.

Before that, they’d knocked out League One facet Stevenage and League Two’s Barrow. Now, having grow to be the bottom ranked facet to succeed in the competitors’s last-16 since Blyth Spartans within the 1977/78 season, they face one other monumental problem.

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In being drawn in opposition to Coventry, Maidstone play a facet 95 locations above them within the soccer pyramid. Yet regardless of being by far the smallest membership left within the FA Cup, the gamers are going into the tie trying to as soon as extra create historical past in entrance of their 5,000 travelling supporters – by deploying the identical mindset which acquired them right here.

Reiss Greenidge, Maidstone’s 28-year-old centre-back, solely informed Daily Star Sport: “Coventry is a large membership. Of course, the boys had been all dreaming of drawing a Man City or a Liverpool or a Chelsea as a result of they’re enormous video games, however we all know Coventry can be a tricky, powerful sport too. They’ve acquired some excellent gamers.

“As lengthy as you’re on the pitch, you’ve acquired an opportunity. It doesn’t matter if it’s Coventry or Barcelona, there’s at all times an opportunity. We’re relishing the chance to check ourselves in opposition to harder gamers. It makes you assume, ‘Wow, imagine what it would be like to play against these guys every week’.”

Greenidge was introduced on the hour mark of the now famous victory over Ipswich in January with the score level at 1-1. He was instantly forced into action as the Championship side created big chance after big chance, coming inches away from taking the lead and stopping Maidstone’s cup run.

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The towering 6ft 6in defender defined: “We just kept things simple and had to be extra alert because they’re top quality. You could tell some of their youngsters had that wow factor. I came on to use my fresh legs to help the boys out who had been running around for the first 60 minutes and try to impose myself on the game.

“There were no nerves for me personally despite them obviously being a big team. I’ve played at high levels before so I wasn’t intimidated by them. It wasn’t a thing where it was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s Ipswich’.

“Everyone was just a hundred percent focused. We had nothing to lose going into the game and if we could stay in the game and hit them on the counter, we had a chance.”

That is strictly what the Stones managed, scoring their second of the sport simply six minutes after Greenidge’s introduction as Lamar Reynolds arrange Sam Corne for an emphatic end into the underside left nook. Despite the seemingly endless barrage of assaults, Maidstone stood defiant, sparking pure ecstasy at full time as supervisor, workers and gamers celebrated on the pitch and tried to know the gravity of their achievement.

“It was crazy, everyone was over the moon,” Greenidge recalled. “A lot of the boys couldn’t believe that it actually happened, they were on cloud nine.” He added: “I can’t remember too much what the manager said in the dressing room after but we weren’t supposed to have the Monday off and he gave us the day off! The boys are proud of what we’ve done and it’s a legacy that we’re leaving.”

Aside from forging reminiscences that may final a lifetime, that legacy features a very welcome £700,000 prize pool for his or her FA Cup run, which has gone some approach to enhancing the infrastructure on the Kent membership.

Maidstone went bankrupt in 1992 and needed to begin from scratch, dropping 12 leagues all the way down to the Kent County League earlier than climbing their manner again up. They nearly went underneath once more in 2010 however have since grow to be a much more sustainable outfit, repeatedly recording earnings.

On the pitch, the person within the dugout liable for instilling a mentality which has labored wonders is former Wolves midfielder Elokobi. The Cameroonian performed three seasons of Premier League soccer for the Midlands membership from 2009 to 2012 and hung up his boots at Maidstone in 2022.

Speaking about Elokobi’s inspiring teaching, Greenidge mentioned: “The manager instils belief in us that we can win. He has told us from the beginning of the season that he believes in all the players in the dressing room and that we can reach our full potential, that we can compete against better teams and grind out results.

“He played in a similar position at the highest level so for me personally, he’s obviously been a great help. He gives us little tips and works with us after training to try and improve certain things, like positional pointers and tactical information, that extra bit of care when defending.”

He added: “He’s a motivator, you can have a laugh and a joke with him but we all know when it’s time to work. We’re all focused on maximising our ability. He’s a big believer of what you put in, you get out.”

Greenidge himself has been by loads of ups and downs already in his profession. He got here by Arsenal’s famed Hale End academy in the identical age group as Alex Iwobi and Chuba Akpom, earlier than being launched aged 16.

Re-finding his toes initially at West Brom, he left the Baggies attributable to a scarcity of belief from Tony Pulis in kids and made the daring choice to maneuver to Norway in a bid to earn precious enjoying time. Spells at Bolton and Barnet adopted his three 12 months stint in Scandinavia, earlier than the defender, now capped a handful of instances for Guyana, arrived at Gallagher Stadium.

Greenidge believes his impeccable training at Arsenal has made him well-equipped to take care of the numerous attacking menace provided by Championship forwards within the FA Cup with little worry.

He defined: “We all grew up playing academy football, playing at a high level until the ages of 18, 19, 20, so a lot of the fundamentals are the same. Hale End was the Harvard of academy football, that’s the best way I can describe it.

“Training was intense and you were playing against some of the best players in your age group from a young age, the likes of Andreas Christensen and Ruben Loftus-Cheek . So it created that belief for me that I could play against anybody. It was a great education at Arsenal.”