Maidstone boss George Elokobi hails ‘exceptional’ players after sixth-tier side caused huge FA Cup upset away at Ipswich

George Elokobi hailed his Maidstone United heroes after the sixth tier team dumped Championship high-fliers Ipswich Town out of the FA Cup.

‘This is the magic,’ beamed a jubilant Elokobi after goals by Lamar Reynolds and Sam Corne clinched a 2-1 win at Portman Road. ‘It’s truly, truly amazing. A historic occasion for Maidstone United and our community.’

Maidstone of the National League South are into the last 16 of the competition, scoring with their only two shots at goal and conceding only one of the 38 efforts from Ipswich.

‘The Gods were with us,’ added Elokobi. ‘We had to earn our luck. It was important to stay resilient. We knew we wouldn’t create many chances, and we knew to get a result would take some doing. We had to be resilient for 98 minutes and I drummed this into our group of players. We prepared right.

‘I told them one thing, go and enjoy the occasion. I told them they were already history makers in the eyes of the world and the people who love football so take every bit of glory from this. We wanted to memories to take back and now the magic of the FA Cup is making us dream again.’

The Cameroonian insisted ‘the magic of the FA Cup is still alive’ after his side’s stunning win

Maidstone started this FA Cup campaign at Steyning Town in mid-September and they have beaten EFL opposition in Barrow of League Two and Stevenage of League One before travelling to Ipswich in the Fourth Round.

‘I’m a believer,’ said former Wolves defender Elokobi. ‘We believed we could come and compete. In our preparations, we showed respect. We train on an artificial pitch but we hired a grass pitch. We looked at the dimensions of the Ipswich pitch. We gave our boys some visuals about the waves of attacks that were coming.

‘It’s my job to instil that belief. We knew our jobs. We knew we would have to run a little bit more than ever done.

‘My director of football Bill Williams is a fantastic man, in football for 64 years and I don’t know if it was reverse psychology but when we drew Barrow he said, ‘I don’t think we’ll do it’. And I said, ‘watch history being made’.

‘When drew Stevenage, I sent a message to my best mate that it was a winnable tie when no-one believed. And when we drew Ipswich, I said if this is the last dance we are going to go out dancing and dancing well.

‘Let’s be honest, nobody thought we could pull this off.’

The former Premier League defender said that his non-league side ‘have made history’

Maidstone’s preparations were disturbed when the fire alarm twice went off at their hotel on the eve of the game.

‘I made a joke and said the Ipswich fans getting scared, Maidstone is in town,’ said Elokobi, who had more than 300 messages of congratulations on his phone after the Stevenage win. ‘It took me three weeks to reply to everyone.’We’

Maidstone are hoping for an away trip draw to a Premier League club in the next round. ‘That will help our finances,’ said Elokobi. ‘We have to stay sustainable and hopefully we can give our fans another historic day out.’

Elokobi has formerly played for both Nottingham Forest and Wolverhampton Wanderers

For promotion-chasing Ipswich, who made 10 changes, it was their first home defeat to non-league opposition since they lost to Peterborough in 1960.

‘Credit to Maidstone, it’s a fantastic day for them,’ said Town boss Kieran McKenna. ‘They rode their luck but were very clinical and showed fantastic spirit. It’s a bad day for us and there’s a lot of disappointment.

‘We have to live with that and produce a response. It’s happened to better teams than us before, and it’s Maidstone’s day. They deserve their celebrations.’