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“Well, we were never going
to win the FA Cup” opined manager Lloyd Hume after
Maidstone’s disappointing FA Cup exit at the hands
of Southern League Division 1 West side Burnham. “I
don’t want to talk negatively about another team
but they’ve come here and got a result. I’m
disappointed with the result but I’m not disappointed
with our performance. I thought that we deserved at
least a draw today.”
There is merit in all of the above comments from The
Stones player/manager, however, the overwhelming feeling
of disappointment and frustration from the vocal crowd
of 347 present at the game, was due to the fact that
the visitors to Bourne Park played such a negative game.
The football romantics amongst us go fairly dewy eyed
at the thought of end to end, 100% action packed cup
ties but this tie never got out of 3rd gear. Rarely
did Burnham threaten the home goal, yet they somehow
came away from Kent with a barely deserved win. In fairness,
the home side were hardly more productive in terms of
shots on target but at least the desire to go forward
was present. With the tie level a 1-1 and with just
12 minutes to play, Stones introduced a 3rd striker
in Lee Sperring, thus showing their desire to kill off
the game at the first attempt.
As things panned out, it was the visitors who secured
the win, with a superbly struck 84th minute winner from
Darryl Jones. One of Burnham’s few corners was
headed well clear by the returning Aaron Lacy. There
appeared no danger as the ball cleared the edge of the
penalty area, however, Jones met the ball first time
and struck an unstoppable, low, right-footed volley
through the crowded area into the corner of debutant
Dave Wietecha’s goal. Bourne Park was almost stunned
into silent disbelief, save for the odd groan from the
main stand.
The visitors had also scored an unlikely opening goal
in the first half of the game. Yashwa Romeo had shown
presence in the visitors’ front line playing as
a lone striker but Mario Celaire (who before the game
received a bottle of champagne as The Stones’ August
Player of the Month) had made a superb recovering run
and tackle to dispossess the striker as he approached
the penalty area. It was Romeo who opened the scoring
in the 37th minute. Neil Miller, deputising for the
suspended Jimmy Strouts, had been having a very good
game until he made a misdirected pass straight to Ryan
Williams. The midfielder surged into the open space
in front of him and struck a powerful shot across Wietecha.
The keeper dived low to his left and got a strong hand
to the ball but was unable to prevent the ball trickling
across the goalmouth, where Romeo was left with the
simple task of tapping into an empty net.
Prior to this, The Stones had made one extremely good
chance of their own. Garry Kimble, who again supplied
a constant supply of quality crosses into the penalty
area, centred to the back post where Lyndon Rowland
climbed and headed powerfully towards goal. Jamie Jackson
flung himself across goal to make a superb stop.
Just three minutes into the second half, a key moment
of the game occurred. Mario Celaire made a surging run
along the left flank and was caught heavily by Laurence
Brown. Despite continuing his run, Celaire was halted
in his tracks by the whistle of referee Mr Saunders
who failed to apply advantage. Despite the protestations
of Celaire, Brown received a yellow card for his challenge,
which appeared to be a harsh decision. Unfortunately,
within a few minutes, the severity of the challenge
on Celaire became apparent, as he was forced to leave
the game with a suspected broken toe.
In between the caution and Celaire’s withdrawal
from the game, Maidstone thought that they had levelled
matters. A Kimble free kick was met forcefully by the
head of Ryan Royston and the ball arrowed into the corner
of the net. Home celebrations were cut short though
when Mr Saunders ruled the goal out, presumably for
pushing. However, after the game Royston said “Their
guy had two handsful of my shirt, so I don’t really
know why it didn’t count.”
Aaron Lacy replaced Celaire for his first appearance
of the season and soon, the infamous Lacy throw-in was
being used to full effect. As a direct result of the
indecision caused by Lacy’s throws, Mo Takaloo
scored a spectacular equaliser. Lacy launched the ball
into the penalty area and not one defender attacked
the ball, one big bounce later and the ball had reached
Takaloo 10 yards out but with his back to goal. The
Stones hitman was afforded too much time and space by
the Burnham defence as he acrobatically launched into
a right-footed bicycle kick with the ball flying into
the far corner of Jackson’s goal.
With the home side committing players forward at every
opportunity, Matty Miller found himself clear with ball
on half way. He had reached the edge of the Stones’
penalty area when, just as he was about to pull the
trigger, Nathan Paul appeared from nowhere and made
a miraculous saving tackle, having made up at least
15 yards on the Burnham man.
An agonising 6 minutes of additional time wad played
out, with the visitors desperately trying to wind down
the clock, with stoppage time substitutions made and
absolutely no urgency shown in taking free kicks or
throw-ins. However, it was that spectacular strike from
Jones that finally settled the issue and as Burnham
secretary Alan King commented after the final whistle
“It wasn’t pretty but at least we got the
result.”
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