Jake Ready To Get Stones Rolling Again On BT Sport

Which striker scored 13 goals in the season’s first two months but still ended up being relegated?

It’s maybe not a stat they’ll pick up in the Queen Vic or the Rovers Return, but the former Billericay Town scoring machine really doesn’t want that dubious honour attached to his name, thank you very much.

Problem is, time is fast running out to try and save a season which - at one point - looked set to break all kinds of records.

The Maidstone United player, like his manager, accepts very few will give them hope of surviving the drop now. Even when we speak at the end of February.

A season which has quickly managed to get drastically out of control could, potentially, begin its epic revival when his team travel to Solihull Moors for the return of BT Sport’s live National League coverage on Saturday teatime.

We’ll been hearing Dropping Like A Stone and its like pretty soon if they don’t get going quickly, but even with a ten-point gap to make up Robinson is refusing to throw in the towel.

He just wishes it wasn’t true that it’s how you end the season, not start it.

“I remember the opening day,” said Robinson, who is expecting his first child with his partner in May.

“We were at Torquay United playing against Truro City. The sun was out and we won 4-0. I scored all four!

“I remember getting on the coach for the long trip home thinking ‘we are very, very good’. I scored 57 goals the year before for Billericay and we now looked serious.

“Everything in the last 18 month had gone my way and when I got the chance to step back up to the National League with Maidstone United and link up with Harry Wheeler, who had just come to the club after leaving Billericay, I jumped at it.

“Things do change in football quickly for players, for clubs and for managers. This season has certainly told me that.”

Wheeler didn’t last long as he eventually returned to Billericay to finish what he started. Robinson remains, and under new boss John Still league results have yet to switch.

“No they haven’t, but it’s a totally new system and we are still all adapting,” he adds. “When we have, which I’m sure isn’t far away, then I think we will start seeing results.

“We face an uphill battle, of course we do. We’ve left ourselves with a lot to do already and it will take something special but we’ve already seen what clubs stringing results together down the bottom can do.

“We’ve got a good team but all we’re missing is confidence. There’s signs already that there are good things to come.”

Looking down should give fans hope that if it is to be relegation, it’s not the end of the world.

“We won’t wave the white flag until it’s totally impossible to escape,” he said.

“But if you take a look at the National League South table, you will see the two teams right at the top of the table who were both relegated from this league last year.

“Woking and Torquay have shown that going down, if it is to be that come the end of the season, doesn’t have to be a complete disaster.

“But we want to stay up and if we can get three points in front of the cameras then it may just give our season the kick it needs.”