The Stayers’ Hurdle has emerged as an unorthodox potential stepping-stone to a third tilt at the Randox Grand National for Noble Yeats.

The eight-year-old won the world’s most famous steeplechase at Aintree in 2022 and finished fourth in both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and when defending his Grand National crown last season.

Making his first appearance since the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris in May, Noble Yeats reverted to the smaller obstacles at Limerick over the festive period – and while beaten by Sa Majeste as the 10-11 favourite, his owner Robert Waley-Cohen was satisfied with the performance.

“It was a very good first run of the season,” he said.

“I don’t think he really likes that very heavy going as it was at Limerick, but we had to start somewhere and hopefully we’ll get some better ground later in the year.”

Connections decided against entering Noble Yeats for the Gold Cup this time around, but Waley-Cohen has raised the intriguing possibility of him turning up in another major event at the Cheltenham Festival.

He added: “We’re going to enter for the Stayers’ Hurdle – if you don’t enter you can’t decide whether to go for it when the time comes.

“His main target for the year is still the Grand National. The Gold Cup is a tough race and the Grand National is a tough race and I think winning both in the same year is nigh on impossible.

“He was fourth in both last year, which was a fantastic performance, but I’d be more excited about winning one than being fourth in two!

“I don’t think he’s going to win a Gold Cup. He’s a 166-rated horse, the average Gold Cup winner is probably 175 and the very good ones might be closer to 180.”

Whether Noble Yeats runs over hurdles or fences on his next start remains to be seen, with Waley-Cohen keen to keep all options open.

He said: “We might put him in the Cleeve Hurdle, or if you want a chase where you require a lot of stamina you could look at the Cotswold Chase, in which he finished third last season.

“Let’s wait and see, but everything is being geared towards getting to the Grand National in first-class order to give ourselves the best possible chance.”

Conditions are much improved at Huntingdon after severe flooding caused by the overflowing of the Alconbury Brook.

The track is due to host a meeting on Friday, its first since November as the Peterborough Chase fixture was lost last month, as was a further fixture last week.

The Cambridgeshire circuit was virtually underwater just days ago due to the deluge brought in by Storm Henk, but most of that water has now cleared and officials are optimistic about racing going ahead on Friday.

Clerk of the course Roderick Duncan said: “The river is down to pre-flood levels, all the drainage systems are now working and the floodwater has cleared.

“There is just a small area that often accumulates at the two-mile-four (furlong) chute, but not on the racing line.

“There’s a bit of standing water that remains, but we believe we’ve an opportunity of getting this meeting on with the forecast as it is.

“We’ve had a big team in, all the ground staff at Newmarket have given us a hand because there was a lot of debris about, but we’ve found nothing of concern.

“We were lucky that racing-critical buildings like the stable yard have all been flood-defended so that water couldn’t enter them.

“We wouldn’t want a lot of frost, but our forecast indicates that we shouldn’t get it and for that reason we’d be quite optimistic.”

Exeter abandoned Tuesday’s meeting due to frost, losing a seven-race card with temperatures dropping to minus 3C overnight.

Owen Farrell’s service to English rugby has given him the right to leave Saracens on his own terms, according to Jamie George.

Farrell has held talks with Racing 92 over a move to the Top 14 leaders at the end of the season in a shock development that has come in the wake of his decision to miss the Six Nations in order to prioritise his mental wellbeing.

By departing for Paris, the nation’s record point scorer, talisman and veteran of 112 caps would become ineligible for selection by Steve Borthwick.

George is a leading candidate to replace the 32-year-old as England captain and, while he hopes his long-term team-mate stays at Saracens, he insists any move would come with the Gallagher Premiership champions’ blessing.

“The news was as much a shock to us as it was to everyone. It’s all speculation at the minute so I don’t know any more,” Funding Circle ambassador George said.

“Like when he decided to take a step back from international rugby, for me what Owen is doing is prioritising himself and his family.

“He’s a very intense guy and I don’t blame him for stepping back from the international game and out of the spotlight for a little bit.

“If he believes that going abroad is the best thing for him and his family, I would be very supportive of that.

“Obviously he would be a very big loss to everyone at Saracens because of the player and character he is, but there’s no guarantee that he is going.

“He’s given so much to the club, so much to the game and so must to English rugby as a whole.

“He deserves to make his own decision and whatever he decides to do he has the full support of everyone at the club.”

Unless Borthwick opts for a leftfield pick, either George, George Ford or Ellis Genge will lead England in their Six Nations opener against Italy on February 3.

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George, the nation’s undisputed first choice hooker who is set to be offered a ‘hybrid contract’ by the Rugby Football Union, has previously captained Saracens and the Lions.

“I’m hugely flattered to be in the conversation,” said George, who is poised to recover from a neck injury in time to face Bordeaux on Sunday.

“Obviously I’ve played with Owen my entire life so captaincy is something that has always fallen to him, and rightly so because he’s incredible.

“I have led teams before so it is something that I would really embrace and really enjoy.

“But regardless of who it’s given to, they will have my full support. I don’t see it changing who I am or how I am in and around camp, regardless.”

George has been involved in the creation of Team England Rugby Ltd, a new company that will replace the Rugby Players’ Association to negotiate with governing bodies on contracts and commercial matters.

“We’ll definitely still be working with the RPA in terms of welfare and we’ll be encouraging all the England players to still be members of the RPA because they do brilliant things,” George said.

“It isn’t anything to do with money. Team England is a non-profit organisation. We are not saying we are badly paid, we are fully aware that we’re well paid for what we do.

“But ultimately we want the players to be at the forefront of Team England day in, day out.”

– Jamie George is an ambassador for Funding Circle. For more information on Funding Circle and its range of financial products, see: https://www.fundingcircle.com/uk/

Ding Junhui made a magnificent Masters maximum but it was Ronnie O’Sullivan who roared into the quarter-finals with a 6-3 victory at Alexandra Palace.

Ding registered a seventh career 147 in the seventh frame of their first-round clash.

The 36-year-old overcame a tricky yellow and a pink with the rest, which wobbled in the pocket before it dropped, to record only the fourth maximum at the prestigious tournament – and his second after achieving the feat as a teenager in 2007.

Kirk Stevens, in 1984, and Marco Fu nine years ago are the only other players to manage Masters 147s.

Ding trailed O’Sullivan 4-0 at the mid-session interval but the seven-time world champion missed a simple red to finally let him in.

The Chinese star immediately pulled two frames back before his magic moment left him trailing by one at 4-3.

However O’Sullivan, bidding for an eighth Masters title, hit straight back with a break of 121, and two visits to the table later he had wrapped up victory.

“Unbelievable 147 from Ding, I knew he’d make it from about the second or third red. What a magnificent player,” O’Sullivan told the BBC.

On his rapid response to the maximum, he added in typical O’Sullivan style: “Listen, I just tried. My cueing is not great.

“I was just trying to manufacture stuff out there. But I tried, there’s nothing else you can do really, is there?”

Ding was not at the races before the interval and surprised himself with his milestone break.

“I had a lot of chances at the start but just messed up,” he said. “I didn’t think I would play that well when we came back so to make a maximum was amazing.

“I saw the balls open and thought I could try a maximum because Ronnie was playing so well.”

Mauricio Pochettino warned his Chelsea players they must be “clever” in playing without VAR when they meet Middlesbrough in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at the Riverside.

Stadiums outside of the Premier League are typically not fitted with the technology required for the video assistant referee and so Pochettino’s side will take on Championship Boro with only the on-field officials in place.

Chelsea took part in perhaps VAR’s most controversial fixture this season when they won 4-1 at Tottenham in November, a game that featured nine video interventions including five disallowed goals and two red cards shown to Spurs players.

There were a total of 21 minutes of time added on, despite the ball only actually being in play for 43 per cent of the match.

It will be a different proposition for the team on Teesside. Chelsea have the youngest squad in the league this season with an average age of just over 23, many of whom turned professional around the time of the widespread implementation of VAR by Europe’s top-flight leagues in 2018.

Pochettino said his players must prepare to be cautious in the face of unfamiliar circumstances.

“There’s no VAR,” he said. “That is a thing we need to be careful of. Our normal attitude is to play with VAR. We need to be cautious of that.

“We need to be in a different way in our approach. We need to change. Now, it’s just the referee that is going to decide, we need to be cautious.

“It’s a different game whether you play with or without VAR. I don’t say it’s better or worse, but it’s a different game. We need to be clever in this way.”

Chelsea are looking to put one foot into their first major final since they won the World Club Cup in 2021, months after lifting the Champions League trophy in Porto.

They face a Boro side – managed by former Manchester United and England midfielder Michael Carrick – currently 12th in the Championship, having lost 1-0 at home to Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Saturday.

“To spend all our energy (on Tuesday) is the most important thing,” said Pochettino.

“Not to go there and think ‘OK, we have the second leg after to play just in case (we lose)’.

“No, (Tuesday) is the most important game and we need to come back afterwards with a victory and to finish at Stamford Bridge.

“It’s going to be tough. The game against Aston Villa, they lost but they could have won. It’s a good team with great ideas. It’s true they’ve changed their system.

“They played the season in a 4-2-3-1. We know they can use this or a different system. They have good players, a good coach. It’s going to be tough.”

Pochettino will be without Christopher Nkunku – who is out with a hip injury – and Nicolas Jackson, away representing Senegal at the Africa Cup of Nations, meaning another start is likely for Armando Broja after his goal in the 4-0 cup win over Preston on Saturday.

In what had been an expected move, the Washington Commanders fired coach Ron Rivera on Monday.

The decision came one day after the Commanders finished a 4-13 season with a 38-10 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.

Washington lost its final eight games of the season, and was outscored by more than 27 points in three of those defeats.

Rivera's firing wasn't a huge surprise as he failed to post a winning record in any of his four seasons as the Commanders coach, and Josh Harris will work on finding a new coach heading into his second season as the team's controlling owner.

"As we look ahead, we recognize the results this season were not good enough and a strategic shift in leadership and approach is necessary," Harris said in a statement.

Washington hasn't won a play-off game since 2005, though the team did make the post-season in Rivera's first season with the franchise, going 7-9 to win the subpar NFC East in 2020. The Commanders went 26-40-1 in Rivera's four seasons as coach.

"To deliver upon our ultimate goal of becoming an elite franchise and consistently competing for the Super Bowl, there is a lot to do, and first we must establish a strong organizational infrastructure led by the industry's best and most talented individuals," Harris said.

Hired by the franchise on New Year's Day 2020, Rivera arrived in Washington after winning two NFL Coach of the Year Awards during his nine seasons in charge of the Carolina Panthers. He led the Panthers to four play-off appearances and a berth in the Super Bowl in the 2015 season.

"Ron helped navigate this organization through some challenging times," Harris said. "He is a good man and a thoughtful leader who has positively contributed to this organization and the NFL."

Harris will be working with co-owners Mitch Rales, Magic Johnson and David Blitzer as well as former NBA executive Bob Myers and ex-Minnesota GM Rick Spielman in the coaching search.

Lucinda Russell’s Apple Away could make her next start at Warwick in the Trustatrader Hampton Novices’ Chase.

The seven-year-old was a high-class novice hurdler last season, taking Grade One honours when winning the Sefton at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.

Graduating to fences this term, the mare acquitted herself well in a competitive contest on debut when finishing third at Haydock in a late November graduation chase.

She then headed to Leicester for a beginners’ chase last month, triumphing by an easy 31 lengths after a fluent round of jumping against two respectable rivals.

The mare could now take the step up to graded level over fences as she holds an entry for the Grade Two Hampton on Saturday, while she is also engaged in the William Hill Towton Novices’ Chase at Wetherby.

“She in at Warwick and Wetherby, my preference would be to go to Warwick over three miles, but we’ll just check on the ground conditions,” said Russell.

“I think three miles around Warwick would really suit her, she’s absolutely perfect after her last run and she’s back to being the queen she is!

“She’s really smart and I think at Leicester you saw that, she learnt throughout the race and by the end of it she was really confident in her jumping.”

Elsewhere in the Warwick race is Brave Kingdom, Paul Nicholls’ unbeaten eight-year-old who has two novice handicap victories to his name in two starts.

Nigel Twiston-Davies has entered Broadway Boy, an impressive winner of two successive Cheltenham contests in his last two starts.

Evan Williams has thrown Carbon King’s hat in the ring, a winner last time out at Ffos Las, while Dan Skelton may be represented by Grey Dawning, the winner of Apple Away’s chasing debut.

Joe Tizzard has an entry in The Changing Man, with Trelawne also on the list for Kim Bailey.

Joseph O’Brien is looking forward to seeing Banbridge make his belated reappearance in the Coral Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton on Saturday.

The eight-year-old won three of his five starts as a novice over fences last season, rounding off his campaign with a Grade One victory in the Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.

Also a Grade Two winner at Cheltenham and placed behind the top-class pair of Mighty Potter and El Fabiolo last term, Banbridge has not been seen since his success on Merseyside nine months ago, but is poised for a comeback this weekend.

“He’s an intended runner at the moment,” O’Brien confirmed on Monday.

“He’s missed a couple of races earlier this season, just because of unsuitable ground and things have meant he hasn’t got to run, but we’re looking forward to hopefully getting him started at Kempton.

“The spring was always going to be his time, he’s training well and everything has been going well. We’ll keep an eye on the going, but we’re looking forward to getting him started all being well.”

Banbridge is one of seven entries for the Grade Two, with the sponsors making him a 2-1 joint-favourite alongside the Paul Nicholls-trained Pic D’Orhy, who was last seen winning the 1965 Chase at Ascot.

Alan King looks set to step Edwardstone up in trip, with the crack two-miler having proved no match for Jonbon in either the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham or the Tingle Creek at Sandown so far this season.

Paddy Power Gold Cup runner-up Notlongtillmay could represent Laura Morgan, while Willie Mullins could send Janidil across the Irish Sea.

Olly Murphy’s Thunder Rock and Elixir De Nutz from Joe Tizzard’s yard are the other contenders.

Bookmakers have reported turnover on Sunday evening’s historic meeting at Wolverhampton “on a par” with a typical midweek all-weather fixture.

Racing took place at Dunstall Park as the first of six trial meetings scheduled on Sunday evenings through the winter, in an attempt to boost racing’s finances through increased contribution from bookmakers to the Levy.

The card featured strong numerical fields and enhanced prize-money with a minimum of £15,000 per race, with most races run for almost three times the minimum value for their respective grade.

However, concerns remain about the well-being of the participants and winning jockeys Callum Shepherd and Robert Havlin both spoke out against the trial but felt they would lose rides in the future if they did not take part.

Coral spokesperson David Stevens said: “New initiatives such as this should always be given time to bed-in, and this first meeting was up against a big FA Cup match live on terrestrial TV (Arsenal versus Liverpool), which would have had an impact, but overall it was a very solid start, with turnover on a par with a typical evening meeting.”

Betfred’s Matt Hulmes offered a similar assessment, saying: “We took what we would normally expect on an evening all-weather meeting – it was our best performing Wolverhampton meeting of the week, but you would expect that to be the case given the increased prize-money.

“It was broadly what we take at most evening all-weather meetings, but it was the second-highest turnover meeting on the all-weather last week.”

Paddy Power painted a brighter picture, with the firm’s Paul Binfield saying the new meeting was among their best staking fixtures of the week.

He said: “The new Sunday evening fixture performed really well with competitive fields of more than 11 runners and an average favourite SP of more than 2-1.

“The card was in our top five highest-staking fixtures of the week with a double-figure stakes increase on the average Wolverhampton card over the last three months.”

Wolverhampton is part of Arena Racing Company and their group operations director Mark Spincer told Sky Sports Racing on Sunday a view would be taken after all six of the trial meetings had taken place.

“As a group we decided Sunday night could be an area that would drive Levy, it gives us opportunity to own an area – when I say ‘us’, I’m talking about the all-weather tracks – that currently doesn’t have a huge amount of sport in which could mean increased turnover, which means better Levy and overall better financial performance,” said Spincer.

“I can only speak for ARC tracks and from our point of view, whatever public we get we want to accommodate. I think there’s a nice crowd, probably 6/700 being a part of history.

“I think we need to try new things, things take time to grow, look at the Racing League or Good Friday, things take time to get established, last year’s Racing League was our best attendance, Good Friday was a record attendance last year as well.

“Can we make something of the Sunday evenings? I’m sure we can at some point remembering that there are six, it’s a trial and then we pull up stumps and everybody looks at how well it has performed or not performed and then decisions will be made on the future. I’m not prepared to make any comments past six because it’s agreed as a trial and that is exactly what we are in.”

Richard Wayman, chief operating officer at the British Horseracing Authority, said one of the main aims of Sunday racing was to help grow interest in British racing.

“One of the things we are trying to do as part of the Industry Strategy is to try to grow interest in racing and grow the number of people who follow the sport,” he said.

“We’ve got various workstreams in relation to the fixture list which are designed to try to achieve that. Make more of the big stuff on a Saturday through Premierisation and we want to improve the quality of Sunday racing and through listening to our colleagues in the betting industry, who have told us there is significant growth in the amounts of money being bet generally on a Sunday evening, (we are staging the trial).

“What we don’t know at this stage is the appetite for betting on British racing on a Sunday evening, so the purpose of the six trial meetings is just to try to ascertain what demand there is. These six fixtures will tell us what the demand is.

“Callum’s comments are perfectly understandable as this does put a lot of strain on those people servicing the fixtures such as jockeys, trainers, stable staff, our own staff, the racecourse staff servicing those fixtures as there are a lot of people involved in putting a race meeting on, so as part of the trial we will get feedback from all of those people.

“At the end of those six fixtures we’ll take a view on whether this is something we should be thinking about long term or not, but only by trying it can we make that decision.

“The betting industry will make the figures available to the BHA and we have set targets. We’d like to see these meetings outperform a regular all-weather night meeting by 15-20 per cent, even if it does do that it doesn’t necessarily mean it will carry on.”

The next Sunday evening fixture is scheduled for Chelmsford on January 21.

Henrietta Knight is feeling the nerves as she prepares to resume her training career with two potential runners at Wincanton on Friday.

The 77-year-old handed in her licence back in 2012 following a stellar career highlighted by Best Mate’s three victories in the Cheltenham Gold Cup between 2002 and 2004.

She also counted 2000 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Edredon Bleu among her stable stars, while Somersby, Calgary Bay, Racing Demon and Lord Noelie were other leading lights for the West Lockinge yard.

Zettabyte and Ballywalter, who could contest the Start Your RacingTV Free Trial Now Handicap Hurdle and Stayers Maiden Hurdle at Wincanton respectively, are evidently some way below the calibre of those stable luminaries, but Knight admits the butterflies are setting in.

She said: “I’m quite nervous thinking about it and I think I’m more nervous than when I sent out Best Mate in his third Gold Cup.

“Lots of people have been writing about us and I think there is an expectation for us to have a winner as we had a winner with our first runner in 1989 at Bangor.

“The plan is very much to go to Wincanton on Friday providing it is on. Zettabyte would prefer better ground, while Ballywalter is not a particularly fast horse but he will love the ground. He is a very honest and game horse that jumps and stays well.

“He is owned by my niece, who will be there at Wincanton with me, and he will run in my late sister’s (Celia) colours so it will be an extremely emotional day.”

Knight has kept her hand in the racing world over the intervening years, writing several books, as well as setting up a pre-training and schooling business, which she will be continuing to operate, and acting as racing manager to the late owner Mike Grech.

She will have former trainer Brendan Powell as her assistant, while secretary Dawn Graham has returned to her old role.

Knight saddled seven Cheltenham Festival winners during her first spell in the training ranks and the ultimate goal is to add to that tally – although she does not anticipate that success in the immediate future.

She added: “I would love to have another winner at Cheltenham, but I might have to wait until I’m in my 80s for that to happen as a lot of the horses we have are young and exciting and some are only two or three years old.

“It would be my aim to have another winner at Cheltenham as you can’t describe that feeling. However, for all that those previous days there were wonderful, I never look back.

“I don’t really have the time to sit back and watch those races. Racing is about planning ahead and keeping on going forwards. You can’t keep winding the clock back.

“We are already halfway through this season, and next season we will start to have targets. At the moment, it is just going to be one step at a time, but it will be nice when we get the first winner on the board.”

Ted Walsh expects Any Second Now to be suited by conditions should he line up in Saturday’s Wigley Group Classic Chase at Warwick.

The 12-year-old is one of 21 entries for the three-mile-five-furlong feature, with his trainer eager to make an inaugural visit to the track as he seeks a winning opportunity for the veteran.

Any Second Now finished down the field on his return at Navan last month and after racing off a career-high mark of 167 in last year’s Grand National, his rating has now fallen to 148 in Ireland.

“I’ve never had a runner at Warwick, I’ve never been to Warwick, but it’s a race I’ve often watched. It suits the National-type of horse, it’s a lot of jumping and you really have to stay there which I think will suit him,” he told the Nick Luck Daily podcast.

“I’m very limited in what I can do here. He’s not good enough for the better races and I ran him at Navan off 150, but a lot of the races here are confined at 150 – he’s now 148.

“If I don’t go there, I’ll go to the Thyestes, but the Thyestes is very, very heavy ground and it’s competitive. Warwick is definitely on the agenda to go there.”

Having finished third at Aintree in 2021 and second in 2022, Any Second Now is a 33-1 shot with bet365 for this year’s marathon, but Walsh feels his chance of National glory has gone.

He said: “He’s now 12 years of age – he’s a pensioner. I haven’t any aspiration of him being a live contender for the National anymore, but I think he’s quite capable of winning a race somewhere.

“I need a lot of help (from the handicapper). He’s been a very good, consistent horse and he’s always run a good race but he’s not what he used to be, which you wouldn’t expect, and he crawled up the handicap through his good runs in the National.

“I don’t honestly think he was ever quite as high as the English handicapper rated him, he was up in the 160s at one stage. I never thought he was a Grade One horse.

“He’s a good handicapper and can win a Grade Three chase. He’s been a great servant and I’d like to think there’s another race in him somewhere and I put him in at Warwick because I think the conditions of the race will suit.”

Walsh was “absolutely shocked” last year when the British Horseracing Authority’s chase handicapper Martin Greenwood allotted Any Second Now top-weight for the National with a mark of 167, a rating the trainer still feels was inflated.

He added: “We don’t always agree with Martin Greenwood, but we’re on the other side of the fence and whatever he gives us, we would think he could give us a few pounds less, that’s the way it is.

“I didn’t think in the National last year, I’ve a good memory and he isn’t the calibre of horses I saw carry top-weight and run well in the National, the likes of L’Escargot, Crisp and Red Rum – he never was of that calibre.

“It’s up to Martin Greenwood to assess him, but I honestly thought he had what he had, but I think he wasn’t within 7lb of those horses.”

While the ante-post market for the National is still in its formative stages, a couple of those prominent in the betting are also pencilled in for Warwick.

The Jonjo O’Neill-trained Monbeg Genius leads the way as a 20-1 chance for Aintree, with the Dan Skelton-trained Galia Des Liteaux a 40-1 chance along with Malina Girl, who could be another Irish raider for Gavin Cromwell.

Other key names possible for Warwick include Beauport, Rowland Meyrick winner Fontaine Collonges, last season’s Midlands National hero Major Dundee and Guetapan Collonges, who finished fourth in last year’s renewal.

Barcelona defender Inigo Martinez is facing another spell on the sidelines after suffering a fresh injury setback on his return to action at the weekend.

The Spain international lasted just 11 minutes as he made his comeback from a hamstring problem as a second-half substitute in Sunday’s Copa del Rey victory at Barbastro.

The 32-year-old now has a thigh injury and, having just spent a month out, is now facing a further period on the casualty list.

An update from the club read: “Tests carried out on the first team player show that Inigo Martinez has an injury to the biceps femoris muscle in his left thigh.

“He is unavailable for selection and his recovery will dictate his return.”

Maidstone United produced the biggest FA Cup upset at the weekend as the lowest-ranked team left in the competition beat Stevenage to reach the fourth round.

The sixth-tier club are waiting to learn who they face next after a 1-0 victory against the League One side sealed their sixth FA Cup win this season and a place in the hat for Monday night’s draw.

Here, the PA news agency turns the spotlight on The Stones, who have reached the fourth round for the first time.

Route to the fourth round

Second qualifying round – Steyning Town 1-4 Maidstone

Third qualifying round – Winchester City 0-2 Maidstone

Fourth qualifying round – Torquay 0-2 Maidstone

First round proper – Chesham United 0-2 Maidstone

Second round proper – Maidstone 2-1 Barrow

Third round proper – Maidstone 1-0 Stevenage

Upsetting the odds

Maidstone reached the third round proper for the first time since 1987 when coming from behind to beat League Two promotion-chasers Barrow 2-1 last month thanks to goals from Sam Corne and Bivesh Gurung, who fired a superb 74th-minute winner. Against Stevenage on Saturday, midfielder Corne kept a cool head to convert a first-half penalty and that was enough to dump out Steve Evans’ League One high-flyers, who are 69 places above The Stones in the league pyramid.

Elokobi eyes dream tie with Wolves

Manager George Elokobi said after his side’s win on Saturday that it would be a dream come true if they were drawn to play his former club Wolves in the fourth round. Elokobi, who moved to England from Cameroon aged 16, spent six years as a defender at Molineux before ending his playing career with The Stones and also had spells at Colchester, Oldham and Leyton Orient. “Whoever we draw, it’s a privilege and a great time to be a Maidstone United player, fan, for the management team, owners and backroom staff. It is a historic day,” he said.

Boom and bust

Maidstone won promotion to the Football League for the first time in 1989 but at the end of their third season in the old Fourth Division, the club’s debts had spiralled out of control and they were liquidated in 1992. A new club, Maidstone Invicta, was established in the Kent County League Fourth Division and in 1995 they changed their name to Maidstone United. They have had two spells in the National League since 2016 and were relegated to National League South last season.

Home from home

During their spell in the Football League, Maidstone were forced to play home games at Dartford as their ground was not up to standard and they were without a stadium of their own until 2012 when the £2.8million Gallagher Stadium was opened in the town on James Whatman Way. After several improvements, the ground now has a seated capacity of 4,200. Maidstone are currently fifth in the National League South table, 13 points behind leaders Yeovil.