Just like in the games against Fleet and Croydon, Ryan Royston was The Stones’ hero as his header six minutes from time gave Maidstone a much needed victory for the first time in four games.
After the disappointment of the recent performances and results, United played their best football for weeks as finally some confidence seemed to return to the side.
Although it took both teams a while to settle down, The Stones began to take charge of the game after about twenty minutes and they really should have found themselves in front one minute later. Nick Hegley was put through on goal and with just Luke Garrard to beat, Hegley tried to round the Kingstonian keeper but he only succeeded in giving Garrard the ball.
Sixty seconds later, Kingstonian opened up Maidstone’s defence when Wes Goggin found Neil Lampton in space inside the area but Lampton snatched at the chance and blazed his shot high and wide of the goal.
With the tension building, there was some relief for The Stones fans on twenty nine minutes when United edged in front. Aaron Lacy sent a deep free-kick into the Kingstonian box which strangely, Garrard decided to come and try and punch clear. With Garrard helplessly stranded, Errison Ahwan rose above The K’s defence to send a looping header goalwards and despite Simon Sobihy’s best efforts, Ahwan registered his tenth goal of the season.
On the stroke of half time, Sam Tydeman’s long ball was not dealt with by Nick Rundell which gave possession to Mo Takaloo but The Stones’ striker must have been unaware that he could have taken another touch as he hit a first time effort wide of the post.
After the break, The Stones initially appeared sluggish and within two minutes of the restart they had gifted Kingstonian an equaliser. Robert Traynor dashed into the Maidstone box but with Royston tracking him his weak shot wasn’t even on target yet unfortunately, Mario McNish came sliding in to try and clear the danger and ended up putting the ball into the back of his own net.
Within four minutes of this, it looked as if McNish had made amends when he rose to meet Tydeman’s corner at the far post but Rundell cleared his header off the line. McNish was then involved again on fifty seven minutes when he was caught in possession by Lampton but The K’s player wasted the opportunity and shot over the bar.
This let off seemed to spur Maidstone on and for the remainder of the game The Stones were camped inside the Kingstonian half. On sixty two minutes, Alan Walker and Lloyd Hume made the decision to replace Nick Hegley with Alex Tiesse, much to the dismay of some the crowd. But speaking after the game, Walker explained the reason behind this decision saying: “At half time Nick Hegley said he was shattered and his feet were killing him. I felt for Alex Tiesse when he came on as people were booing and yelling abuse at the bench saying you don’t know what you are doing. We asked for people to get behind the team and so these people are not true supporters.”
With sixty six minutes gone, Takaloo curled a quickly taken free-kick from the edge of the box into the net only for the referee, Mr Fissenden, to disallow the goal. Then a minute later, Royston flicked Lacy’s throw on and Lynden Rowland saw his header just clear the top of the bar.
The Stones were to go even closer on seventy minutes when Ahwan’s header clipped the post and Takaloo also had two efforts just miss the target as United ratcheted up the pressure.
By now the nerves amongst Stones fans were beginning to build to colossal levels and the management duo decided to send Royston forward as United desperately searched for a winner. It was to prove an excellent decision as with six minutes remaining, The Stones pieced together one of their best moves in many weeks. Tydeman sent in a deep cross to Rowland who nodded the ball back to Royston and from close to the edge of the area, Royston powered his fantastic header into the right hand corner of the net to send the United fans into a state of ecstasy.
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