Bournemouth Poppies 1-3 Maidstone United

Scorers

Stones: Austin 23, Rowland, Hegley

Bournemouth : Phillips 21

Line-ups

Stones: Hume, Sinclair, Barton, McNish, Ahwan, Rice, Strouts, Tydeman, Huggins, Sperring, Austin
Subs: Lacy, Takaloo, Rowland, Miller, Hegley

Bournemouth: -

THE POST MATCH INTERVIEW

Alan Walker (2Mb)

Joint manager Alan Walker described his feelings as "The complete opposite of Tuesday night" after Stones dispatched a combative Bournemouth Poppies side 3-1 at Namu Road. Following the debacle of the 5-2 defeat at Thamesmead Town, this result provided a more than acceptable antidote to everybody involved with the club.

Chairman Paul Bowden-Brown had afforded the management team the opportunity to take the first team squad away for a weekend of team bonding by generously funding the trip and Walker and Hume made the most of the chance to get some much needed organisational defensive work done with the squad on Friday.

The game itself was played in sultry conditions following thinderstorms and torrential rain along the south coast just a couple of hours before. The home side opened the scoring after 21 minutes when Leigh Phillips powered home an unstoppable header from 10 yards out after some very neat team build up play by The Poppies. Manager Lloyd Hume, who was called in as emergency goalkeeper had absolutely no chance with his effort, however, in the remainder of the game he was seldom troubled and was neat and tidy in all of his work.

Within two minutes The Stones had levelled the scores when Simon Austin drove home a low shot from the edge of the box after Sam Tydeman's ball upfield had been flicked on by the head of Leroy Huggins. The game then became overly physical for ten minutes when challenges from both sides became more and more aggressive and retributional. Thankfully, the half-time break helped to cool the situation down.

Two second half goals sealed a victory for Maidstone. Lynden Rowland headed on a goal kick from Hume into the path of Nick Hegley. He beat his man and crossed for Rowland to head home for the lead. Ten minutes later, Hegley, who had a great game, netted himself. Again, Hume's clearance was headed on by Rowland into the path of Hegley and after beating two defenders he slotted the ball past the keeper and the ball rolled very slowly into the back of the net.

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