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It's not often that you come away
from a 5-1 thrashing thinking that 10-1 might have been
a more accurate reflection of the game but such was
Maidstone’s dominance against a poor Sporting Bengal
side that they really should have boosted their goal
difference even further.
And this was reflected in Alan Walker’s comments
after the game. He said: “ I thought it was a good
performance. The only thing that was lacking was a little
bit of composure in front of goal. We created well into
double figures of very good chances, we ended up getting
five goals and I’m a bit disappointed as I thought
we could have rattled up a lot lot more and done our
goal difference a world of good.”
From the outset the Stones looked to push forward at
every opportunity but this nearly cost them with just
4 minutes played when a mix-up in midfield left Nizamul
Hoque in the clear but he elected to shoot early and
his effort missed the target.
Nick Hegley was causing the Bengal defence all sorts
of problems and he had two chances in the first 10 minutes
alone and also provided a cross which had Mo Takaloo
managed to reach at full stretch, would have brought
the first goal. Hegley then hit the far post with a
low shot and Lyndon Rowland, who earlier had been booked
for punching the ball into the net, couldn’t finish
off the rebound.
Despite the game being rather disjointed the Stones
were creating decent chances every couple of minutes.
Simon Austin was performing well out on the wing and
on 27 minutes his run ended with Rowland unselfishly
setting up Takaloo but he scuffed his shot.
Then finally the break through came 11 minutes before
half time. Jason Barton did well to find Hegley in midfield
and he ran all the way to the box before firing the
ball low into the bottom right hand corner.
Despite the Stones having had over 10 chances in the
first half but only scoring one of those, Lloyd Hume
and Alan Walker remained optimistic that Maidstone would
add to their tally in the second half. Hume said: “
We believed that all we had to do was keep going, keep
working at what we were doing and not be complacent.
I felt that if we kept getting the chances and the opportunities
sooner or later we would get the goals.”
And it didn’t take long for the Stones to score
again. Just 7 minutes into the second half Ryan Royston
knocked down Aaron Lacy’s throw and Rowland put
the ball past the Sporting Bengal keeper Helaluz Zaman..
Yet even before this goal went in the Stones could
have scored a couple of times. Hegley had another opportunity
from inside the box but he smashed the ball over, Rowland
had a goal ruled out for offside and Shahid Ali cleared
Takaloo’s shot off the line.
But Bengal came close to pulling a goal back on 53
minutes straight from their kick-off. Foyzul Hoque raced
down the right hand side and his shot from a tight angle
bounced off the top of the bar.
Any faint hopes that Bengal held of getting back into
the match quickly dissipated when Younes Benmessouad
was dismissed for elbowing Neil Miller. And shortly
after that, substitute Lee Sperring controlled the ball
on the edge of the area before lashing in his second
goal of the season.
Then at the other end, a bizarre mistake from Pat Mullin
gifted Bengal a consolation goal. The ball flew back
to him following a Miller challenge but rather than
pick it up, Mullin elected to try and control the ball
with his chest. Unfortunately for Mullin, it flew off
his chest and substitute Jahed Khan had the simple task
of putting the ball back past him into the net.
But Mullin redeemed himself with 80 minutes played
when he found himself facing Khan who was bearing down
on goal but he managed to do enough to allow Royston
to head the ball out.
However, two late Stones goals added a gloss to the
score line. First, Royston found Sperring out wide with
a great ball and his pullback was hammered into the
net by Jimmy Strouts who had replaced Rowland. And then
with just a minute left, Takaloo received the ball with
his back to goal, shuffled into space and struck a drive
into the bottom of the net.
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