Inside Maidstone: Former EPL star Elokobi leads training on Sunday League pitch

Half an hour before training begins and Maidstone United manager George Elokobi is pinging cross-field passes to his assistant Craig Fagan. It is just the pair of them on the outfield, enjoying the calm before the work begins.

Elokobi becomes fixated on curling the ball with his left foot around the back of the net and back onto the pitch. He then boots the ball up in the air, shouting “Five!” and counts down to exactly five seconds before the ball hits the ground. The timing is perfect. Of course, it is. And so is his smile when he pulls it off three times in succession.

Elokobi, 37, was once a Premier League footballer but this local Sunday League pitch is a far cry from the peak of his playing career. He once scored at Old Trafford.

‘Hello and welcome to the real world,’ he tells Mail Sport. ‘Tell me, how could you ever not love this beautiful game? Between us - he (Fagan – also a former Premier League player) drills the attacking players and I can hairdry the defenders, so we make a good combination,’ Elokobi jokes. It’s time for work.

It is matchday minus two, before the biggest game in Maidstone’s history. On Saturday, the Stones will play in front of almost 30,000 fans at Portman Road - with 4,500 of their own making the trip to East Anglia for a clash against a side 98 places higher.

Maidstone are the only English side not from the Premier League or Championship, left in the last 32 of the cup. Their average attendance at the Gallagher Stadium is just shy of 2,000 yet their allocation for Saturday sold out in under two hours.

The Stones usually train at the Gallagher on artificial turf but Elokobi wants to train on grass ahead of their big day so Mail Sport jumps on the team minibus with all the equipment for the