Hakan Hayrettin and Maidstone are so close to proving their doubters wrong once and for all.

The Stones need two victories from their final three games to be crowned National League South champions after an extraordinary run of 20 wins in their past 24 matches.

They could even take the title this Saturday, if they beat Chelmsford at home and rivals Dorking lose to St Albans.

Boss Hayrettin hasn’t forgotten the criticism directed at him and his players from various quarters this season.

It’s stung and even now he feels they haven’t had the credit they deserve.

Hayrettin said: “Listen, for nine months, people have said Maidstone are not the best team, Maidstone are lucky, the manager’s not good enough.

“For nine months, they’ve not once said that the team’s strong, the squad is strong, good management, nothing like that. So what’s going to change now? Nothing.

“I’d rather be lucky for the next three games and win the league, I’d take that, but these boys deserve a lot of credit for what they’ve done in a short space of time.

“To put a squad together like I have sometimes takes time, it takes one season, two seasons, but I’ve somehow galvanised something with these guys and I think the big personalities and big characters have helped me do that.

“We had a bad period, and I understand that, we’re always going to get judged on results, but I always had faith this squad would be challenging.

“I felt the same with the squad we had last season, when we were in the pandemic, we were going to challenge.

“Nothing’s over till it’s over, the process is still the process, and once the process is done, that’s when we’re going to know if we’re the best team.”

Maidstone will have to finish the job without top scorer Joan Luque, who will miss the run-in with a knee injury suffered at Dartford on Easter Monday.

• Luque's new role

They coped well without the 22-goal winger at Hemel last weekend, where a 4-0 success made it seven wins in a row.

But he’s still a big loss and Hayrettin would love to clinch the title for his injured Spaniard.

“I did say to the boys if I were to pick a player-of-the-year now it would probably be Luque because he’s scored 22 unbelievable goals,” said Hayrettin.

“I know six of them were penalties but that’s 22 goals from a wide position, which is astronomical - unbelievable.

“But when I put this squad together, I put it together based on all conditions, all players, all surfaces and now people have to step up, and they did, and they will.

“We will continue to step up, and we’ll try to win the league for the likes of Luque and Reece Grant, who hasn’t played all season.

“Don’t forget we missed Joe Ellul for a long time as well, we had Regan Booty out for 10 games and George Elokobi missed a lot of games.

“I haven’t used a lot of players but the players I’ve used have been unbelievable.

“We’ve probably used the least amount of players in the league.”