Saturday 21st January 2012 // Ryman League Division One // Attendance // Report by Ruth Tunnell
Maidstone United’s recent unbeaten run of form has come to an end after they succumbed to a physical Hythe Town side.
This was a below par performance from The Stones and they failed to take advantage of the home team being reduced to ten men on 14 minutes when Dave Cook was dismissed for raising his hands as a number of players gathered around following a tackle from Michael Phillips.
And Hythe can perhaps consider themselves fortunate to have not been down to nine men by the break after Nick Barnes clearly elbowed Phillips resulting in the Maidstone player developing a significant lump on his forehead but both the referee and his linesman missed the incident.
It was all the more galling that Barnes then grabbed the winner in the 60th minute when his attempted cross swirled into the net. Despite this though manager Jay Saunders did not want to make any excuses for his team saying: “When you play against ten men you have got to stretch them and switch the play but we didn’t do enough of it and too many of them didn’t turn up today and I have just told them that.”
Hythe looked to take control of the match right from the off and on three minutes a low corner was played into the area where it reached the unmarked Nick Reeves and the former Maidstone player saw his shot clear the bar.
The home side then had Cook sent off before they had another good chance on 22 minutes when Taser Hassan went past Sam Bewick and Phillips with ease before pulling the ball back into the middle where it was met by another ex Stone Kane Rice who wastefully fired over.
It wasn’t until the 30th minute that Maidstone finally threatened when Ellis Green made good progress down the right hand side passing John Walker on his way and Green’s cross was headed wide by Shaun Welford.
Ten minutes later Ronnie Dolan’s free-kick reached Reeves who had once again had been left unmarked and fortunately for The Stones, Reeves failed to hit the target despite being well placed.
Maidstone had a good spell straight after the break and on 47 minutes a long kick down field from Hawkes came to Green who entered the box but Dean Ruddy in the Hythe goal saved his deflected shot.
Four minutes later The Stones came within inches of opening the scoring when Alex Flisher raced past Rice and slipped the ball into substitute Alex Waugh whose rising drive was just tipped over the bar by Ruddy. Then shortly afterwards, Danny Lye picked out Flisher with a good ball and his low drive across the box was missed by both Waugh and Welford as they slid in to try and get the vital touch.
Hythe then began to come back into the game and on 57 minutes Brendon Cass found himself bearing down on Hawkes but The Stones were saved by Sam Groombridge who did well to make an important tackle.
However, the winning goal came just three minutes later courtesy of Barnes and there after Maidstone never looked like getting back into the game as Hythe defended resolutely and closed the game out.
Hythe Town: Nick Barnes 60
Maidstone United: -
Hythe Town: Dean Ruddy, Aaron Lacy, John Walker, Pat Kingwell, Nick Reeves, Ronnie Dolan, Dave Cook, Nick Barnes, Taser Hassan (Gary Mickleborough 75), Brendon Cass (Craig Thomspson 64), Kane Rice (Kieran Byrne 64). Subs not used: Richard Sinden, Tom Parkinson.
Maidstone United: Daren Hawkes, Tommy Osborne (Alex Waugh 9), Tom Mills, Sam Groombridge, Graeme Andrews, Sam Bewick, Ellis Green, Danny Lye (Baff Addae 71), Shaun Welford, Michael Phillips, Alex Flisher. Subs not used: Rob Lyall, Jay Saunders, Marc Powell.
