| The Stones bagged their second Ryman League One double inside three days with a hard fought victory away against their old Kent League rivals, Cray Wanderers. The win means that Maidstone are now unbeaten in eight matches and this good run of form has seen them move up to sixth place in the table.
It was United who started the more brightly of the two sides and they could have taken the lead as early as the 3rd minute when Craig Roser sent over an inviting cross which Simon Austin headed over the bar.
Despite enjoying the greater share of possession, all too often Maidstone were rushing their play in the final third of the pitch. However, with 28 minutes gone, Mario McNish headed Pat Mullin's goal kick into Alex Tiesse's path and he forced Steve Northwood to parry his effort across goal.
The majority of Maidstone’s attacks were coming down the left hand side and it was from another Hegley run on 35 minutes that Jason Barton found himself with a chance to test Northwood but he mis-kicked when well placed.
But even though they were better side for most of the half, The Stones nearly fell behind twice before half time when first Andy Martin shot wide of the far post and then Julian Curnow's header went inches over the bar.
Hegley continued to be a threat down the left in the early stages of the second half but it was the home side who took the lead in controversial circumstances with 62 minutes gone. It had appeared that McNish was pushed as he tried to stop the run of Andy Martin but the referee decided that the free-kick should go in Cray’s favour and Ross Lover showed good awareness to curl the ball in at the near post.
However, if The Stones were feeling hard done by as a result of this goal, Cray had just as much cause to complain about Maidstone’s equaliser. A neat move saw United move the ball out to the left hand side and Roser slipped the pass down the line to Hegley who drilled his cross into the box to Rowland who appeared to push Northwood before finishing from close range.
On 83 minutes, Mullin was called into action when he had to dive to push Gary Abbott’s drive round the post but by this stage, The Stones were in front for 60 seconds earlier Aaron Lacy’s cross was met by Errison Ahwan and his excellent header drifted into the left hand corner to give Maidstone their second win inside a week.
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