Maidstone United 1-0 Met Police

Scorers

Stones:Leroy Huggins 89

Met Police :-

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Line-ups

Stones:Mullin, Paul, Roser, Watts, McNish, Powell, Strouts, Barnes, Huggins, Rowland, Hegley (Austin 81)
Subs Not used: Barton, Hart, Rice, Czanner

Met Police :Packham, Gledhill, Gray, Gregory, Newman, Toppin, Johnson, Evans, Stevens, Hawarth, Finn
Subs: Daly, McKenzie, Elliott, Bedj-Bedj, Parma.

POST MATCH INTERVIEW

Jimmy Strouts (1.3Mb)

The Stones stole all three points from Metropolitan Police courtesy of Leroy Huggins' 89th minute winner at Bourne Park. A game that was tough, uncompromising and physical was not an especially great spectacle but the level of committment from the two sides was unquestionable.

Maidstone's pre-match preparation was thrown into turmoil due to the unexpected absence of manager Lloyd Hume due to a family emergency late on Saturday morning. With co-manager Alan Walker away in Botswana on a coaching visit with his employers the KCFA, it was left to Captain Jimmy Strouts, General Manager Bill Williams and former captain Peter Overton to run team matters in the build up to the match.

The Met were a physically imposing side, with several players standing at over 6 feet tall. They also had the experience of striker Rob Hawarth, defender Lee Gledhill and keeper Will Packham to call upon. A goal less first half saw The Stones squander four decent chances to score. The first of these chances came after only 3 minutes. Nick Barnes floated a free kick into the penalty area and Strouts planted a firm header downwards and across goal. Unfortunately, his effort narrowly went wide of the far post.

Huggins, who showed great strength and movement upfront set up Nick Hegley in the 14th minute with a beautiful diagonal pass across the penalty area but the wide man struck his effort over Packham's cross bar. Huggins then exchanged some neat passing with Strouts and as the captain surged into the area he too struck a left footed shot narrowly over the bar.

2 minutes later, Barnes and Strouts combined to win the ball in midfield. Squaring the ball to Nathan Paul, his lovely pass sent Huggins through into the area but he also cleared Packham's goal. Stones were almost punished for these misses just one minute later when Barry Stevens volleyed narrowly over Pat Mullin's goal from 10 yards following a visitors' corner. Just before half time, Ryan Gray's free kick found Adrian Topping in the home penalty box and the defender lobbed his shot narrowly over.

The Met started the 2nd half strongly and Leon Johnson forced Mullin into a good parrying save from 18 yards out. Within two minutes debutant Ray Powell almost opened his Stones account. Huggins made a great break into Met territory and played a cross field pass to Hegley who in turn squared the ball across the 6 yard box. Powell attempted to flick the ball home but Packham was equal to his effort in the Met goal.

In the next 5 minutes The Stones had three efforts on goal, with Strouts narrowly missing with an overhead kick, Powell had 25 yard drive deflected over (but without the reward of a corner for his efforts) and Hegley's great run set up Huggins in front of goal only to see the ball whipped off of his toes as he was about to shoot. However, on 65 minutes The Met should have taken the lead when Stevens was presented with a one on one chance against Mullin. The Maidstone keeper was up to the task as he blocked the striker's effort and kept the home team in the game.

Packham in the Police goal replicated Mullin's heroics in the 80th minute when he blocked Powell's effort in another one on one scenario. With The Stones now searching out a winner, Barnes saw a drive from outside the area delect narrowly over the bar. Then in the 89th minute Huggins broke the deadlock.

A pass from Paul caught the visitors' defence flat and square and Huggins used his pace to sprint through on goal. He took his shot early and rifled the ball home, high into Packham's net. The drama wasn't over though as referee Frank Meilack added on 9 minutes of additional time to give the game a very fraught and tense finale. In the time added on by the referee, Lew Watts picked up an unfortunate second yellow card for knocking the ball away at a free kick and thus made an early return to the dressing rooms.

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