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After the excitement of Saturday’s
trip to Deal this was an altogether different performance
from the Stones but their gutsy showing yielded an equally
important three points.
However, Alan Walker was far from
pleased with how his side had played saying: “
I think it was a case of after the Lord Mayor’s
show. We’d done enough in the first half to get
the goal and go 1-0 in front but we could see that even
in the last 15 minutes of the first half that people
were shirking their responsibilities and to be honest
that is no where near the level of performance we expect
from the players. The only positive I can take out of
it is that its 3 points and that this time last year
we would have lost that game.”
Ryan Royston was at the centre of Maidstone' s early
chances and he saw a 25 yard half volley thunder just
wide before a header and a hooked shot just failed to
hit the target.
Mo Takaloo also looked sharp up front and with 19 minutes
played he reacted quickly whilst on the floor to kick
the ball back over his head but the Herne Bay keeper,
Jack Delo, saved.
With the Stones enjoying the majority of possession
it seemed only a matter of time before they took the
lead and the opening goal finally arrived in the 32nd
minute. Sam Tydeman sent a good ball over the top, which
Nick Hegley took into space giving him an age to pull
the ball back into the box where he found Mo Takaloo
who couldn’t miss from 12 yards.
But slowly, Herne Bay began assert some pressure of
their own and they enjoyed a good spell either side
of half time. A shot from Simon Brown and a header from
the unmarked Dave Souton went wide before Marion Button
forced a terrific tip over from Pat Mullin with a fierce
drive from the edge of the area.
At the other end, Takaloo wriggled his way into the
area and drew a good save from Delo and Royston saw
his header from Gary Kimble's pinpoint corner cleared
off the line by Martin Collins.
But with the Stones unable to get a firm grip on the
game their were still a few nervy moments to come and
luckily for United, Herne Bay found Mullin in excellent
form. The Stones keeper first managed to launch himself
to claw away Simon Brown’s curling free-kick which
had seemed destined for the top corner and then he came
to the rescue again with a near post block from Luke
Harvey’s effort.
Even Mullin was powerless to stop Nathan Eastwood’s
side footed finish from Shaun Brown’s pass in the
74th minute but much to Brown’s disgust, the goal
was ruled out for offside and the Stones held on for
their second victory inside a week
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