Maidstone’s match at Torquay was held up after referee Dan England learned of coaching from the home terracing on the far side of the ground.

England was alerted by a linesman during the first half of Saturday’s 1-1 National League South draw at Plainmoor and called Gulls manager Jimmy Ball and Stones counterpart Craig Fagan together on the halfway line.

Fagan described the situation as a “new one for me” and was surprised to hear it had happened.

“Apparently, someone was coaching,” said the Stones boss.

“One of their coaches was over the other side of the ground and he was coaching.

“They’re fighting for their lives (the pre-season title favourites are 14th in the table).

“If they feel the need to have another coach around the other side of the pitch, that’s a new one for me. But they should have done all their work in the week and not needed someone over there.

“It is what it is. It’s something else we’ve had to battle.

“The referee was asking if it was one of my coaches?

“I was trying to explain, why would I have one of my coaches in the home end? It makes no sense.”

If that was a first for Fagan, abuse from behind the Maidstone dugout was nothing new.

Fagan confirmed there were no racist comments on this occasion but both he and former Stones boss George Elokobi have history at Plainmoor.

With the abuse from a home fan threatening to cross the line, Fagan called for action.

“There’s been incidents in terms of racism before, that haven’t been dealt with, to George and myself, and it was the same gentleman from the start of the game shouting,” said Fagan.

“That’s why I asked for the police to start off with and asked for the steward to go and speak to him. As soon as the steward walks away, he starts again.

“There were no racist comments today but he knew what he was doing.

“I don’t want to say some of the stuff he said.

“Maybe if he got behind his team and supported the previous manager and the manager they’ve got now, that would help, instead of having a go at away benches.

“But that’s football. They pay their money to do what they want.

“Sometimes football fans come to vent. They become different animals at a football ground in terms of having a go at players and staff.

“He started from the first minute because of how it’s been in previous seasons when George has been here.

“I know it’s football but, as a manager, if I say anything back, I’m the one that gets reported because the FA would say I should be leading by example. Today, I had enough of it, so I reported him.”