In 2015-16, Maidstone were in the same division as the team formerly known as Gravesend & Northfleet in a league fixture for the first time in a mind-boggling 33 years.

A rivalry was rekindled that year, culminating in the infamous play-off final, which the Fleet somehow lost despite being gifted two Argentina-class penalties, thanks to Dumebi Dumaka’s stoppage time equaliser and Lee Worgan saving Danny Kedwell’s penalty in the shoot-out.

In his programme notes for the league fixture at Stonebridge Road, their Chief Executive, Peter “Reg” Varney, registered his displeasure with Maidstone for their refusal to meekly accept National League orders, using the phrase: “It is not, in my opinion, the way to do business.”

The Fleet’s way of doing business was to spend an average of between £1 million and £2 million a season for a decade and a half, only to end up exactly where they started.

The verb “to Kedwell” was born after the final: the act of losing when you just couldn’t see it coming.

What’s happened at Stonebridge Road over the summer, by contrast has been coming a mile off and the only surprise is the timing. On Thursday, 48 hours before the start of the season: “this shit got real”.

Two days before the Fleet were due to start their campaign at Slough, The National League issued a statement saying they were unsatisfied the club would be able to “meet its financial obligations throughout the 2026-27 season,” and that “following careful consideration” they would be suspended for the first three games.

It had already been a busy week for the Fleet’s media team. First they said they hadn’t received a winding up order from HMRC, but they would pay the outstanding amounts within a week.

On Monday they expressed their “profound sense of shock and anger” that the Northfleet Harbourside development, with its 8000-seat stadium, had been refused planning permission.

On Tuesday they announced a take over, first announced last year, was going ahead anyway but that restructuring would be needed

Then, on Thursday they gave every impression of having been blindsided by the suspension.

Maidstone took some flack for sharing the National League’s statement, but the schadenfreude is inevitable. Players who might otherwise have played in the County Town were lured instead to Northfleet, directly in the cases of Jephte Tanga and Charlie Seaman, who must now be wondering if he’d have been better off staying put.

Off the field, matchday staff were seriously unimpressed by the behaviour of one official before the league game at JWW last year, which was one reason why admin went in two-footed after we won 3-0.

Repeatedly failing to pay the HMRC on time, while still somehow finding the money for players means sympathy is limited and non-existent in some quarters: the winding up orders from HMRC seem to be served so frequently they might as well have come with the charity bags asking for used clothing. Yet while there are plenty of people who want to see the Fleet humbled, even their worst enemies wouldn’t wish a “1992” on them.

(Slough, incidentally are in the position Scunthorpe were in 34 years ago, taking a financial hit because the game was cancelled after the programmes would have been printed.)

Whatever happens next, it won’t be that bad. A suspension means the league are worried the Fleet won’t see out the season, but if the bills are paid they can carry on as normal. If they aren’t they can go down the Phoenix route, which is a lot more fun than getting humped in the National League every week, especially as they should still have the ground. A third option is voluntary relegation, along the lines of Grays, or Gashtag United, although it’s too late for this season.

A colleague expressed scepticism about the timing, arguing that both sides should have seen this coming. As someone who made a film about the way the National League was governed, I was less surprised. If they’d fine penniless clubs on the brink of bankruptcy during a pandemic, would they really have any qualms about suspending a club two days before the start of the season?

Does anyone emerge from this with credit? It’s not, in my opinion, the way to do business.

Fred Atkins