Their first season as a semi-professional outfit almost brought instant success as the team finished third in the Southern League Division 1 (South), just failing to win promotion behind Waterlooville and Ramsgate.

Their form in the following season went from very good to very poor in a short period of time, which prompted the controversial sacking of manager Keith Peacock.

Running costs were unsustainable, and attendances were falling as a result of Maidstone's disappointing form in the 1990–91 season, and the onset of a recession.

The club then took a massive gamble, and without any planning permission, purchased a piece of land east of Maidstone for £400,000 with a view to building a new stadium on it.

With huge debts, no ground and a poor team, there was little interest, although a consortium from the north east wanted to buy the club, move it to Tyneside and merge it with Newcastle Blue Star F.C.

Walker's managerial skills, combined with the efforts of the few capable players left at the club (notably young Gary Breen and Dean Heath, goalkeeper Iain Hesford, defender Bradley Sandeman and winger Liburd Henry) saw them through, although debts remained huge and the threat of being forced out of the Football League remained.

The Stones would be founder members of the new Division Three, but as the new season came closer it looked more and more unlikely that the Stones would be able to play in it as their financial worries showed no sign of easing and debts reaching £650,000, despite hundreds of thousands of pounds having recently been raised by the sale of players including Warren Barton, Mark Gall and Steve Butler.

They were due to play their first game of the season away to Scunthorpe United on 15 August 1992 but by this stage only two players (defender Gary Stebbing and striker Glen Donegal) were still registered to the club, and the Watling Street stadium had been sold the previous month, leaving Maidstone without a home and not knowing where they would be playing their home games if they remained in existence.

A number of former league clubs, including Scarborough, Halifax Town, Chester City and Rushden & Diamonds have gone bankrupt and ceased to exist since Maidstone United, but all had dropped into the non-league divisions by the time of their demise, though when Chester City went out of business in March 2010, less than a year had passed since their relegation from the Football League.

The league also ruled that no other clubs would be allowed to relocate (whether temporarily or permanently) by a distance comparable to that of Maidstone, who had moved some 40 miles from their traditional home to ground-share with Dartford, and had seen their average attendance halve as a result.

were given permission to relocate 70 miles from South London to Milton Keynes, a move which saw the club rebranded as Milton Keynes Dons, although a group of Wimbledon fans set up their own club (AFC Wimbledon) to ensure that the London Borough of Merton continued to be represented by a football team of note.

[14] Macclesfield were denied promotion in similar circumstances a year later, but their Moss Rose home was swiftly brought up to scratch and they were admitted to the league when they won the Conference title in 1997.

[17] From 1970 to 1973, Maidstone adopted an all-white home kit, but returned to their traditional amber and black colours after this time.

In an attempt to return to Maidstone, the club's board bought a piece of land east of the town in Hollingbourne.