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Sittingbourne 1-1 Maidstone United
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Tuesday 26th December
2006
Ryman Football League Division One |
Attendance:
606
Match reporter: Darren Lovell |
Scorers
Stones:
Austin 6
Sittingbourne:
Lovell 90+3(pen)
MAN OF THE MATCH POLL...Click
Here
Line-ups
Stones: Mullin, Paul,
Barton, Shearer. Ahwan, Royston, Tydeman (Roser 59),
Lacy, Austin (Tiesse 61), Rowland, Hegley (Overton 77)
Subs not used: Sperring, Rice
Sittingbourne: Williams, Ashmore,
Dowley, Ainsworth (Campbell), Searle, Marsh (Knowles),
Browning, Hockey, Neal (Lovell), Doerr, Sherwood
Subs not used: Gooding, Willis
POST MATCH INTERVIEW
Alan Walker (2.5Mb)
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A good sized holiday crowd of 606 at Bourne Park saw the
first league meeting between landlords and tenants since
Maidstone United entered a ground share agreement with
Sittingbourne. This was an eagerly anticipated fixture
but it sadly failed to reach any level much above mediocrity
at any point during the proceedings.
The Stones were the most eager out of the starting blocks
and were rewarded with the opening goal after just 6 minutes
courtesy of in form striker Simon Austin. A Sam Tydeman
corner was pumped deep across the penalty area to be met
by the head of Ryan Royston. The centre back's header
was aiming towards goal but Austin diverted the ball with
a deft header from close range to give him three goals
in two games.
The physical nature of the game was defined with two early
crunching challenges by Maidstone players. Aaron Lacy's
resounding second minute challenge in front of The Brickies'
dugout was soon followed by a strong aerial challenge
from Lynden Rowland on Paul Ainsworth. Rowland's errant
elbow caught the defender across the eye to such an extent
that his vision was impaired and he was substituted after
only 11 minutes of the match and was replaced by James
Campbell.
Two rare first half chances then occurred within a minute
of one another when firstly a low drive from the edge
of the box by Simon Austin was gathered low to his left
by Brickies' keeper Steve Williams. Almost immediately,
Andy Doerr drove a cross into The Stones' area which looped
up off the boot of Nathan Paul. Lee Browning met the cross
with a header but he placed his effort straight at Pat
Mullin. The home side had a further chance after 28 minutes
when Doerr headed goalwards from a corner only to see
Paul clear the ball from the line.
By the midway point of the second half the game had become
a fragmented and frustrating contest with both sides struggling
to play any fluent football and possession was being squandered
frequently by almost every player on the pitch. However,
in spite of this, Maidstone strung together a fine move
in the 66th minute. Lacy, Alex Tiesse and Nick Hegley
combined with a series of neat passes to move through
and past the Sittingbourne midfield. Hegley made his way
to the byline and it looked certain that he would pull
the ball back to the unmarked Lynden Rowland in front
of goal. The subsequent challenge on Hegley provided The
Stones only with a corner, whereas after the game, manager
Alan Walker had been convinced that maybe the referee
should have awarded Maidstone United a penalty.
The game erupted into life just 15 minutes from time when
Lee Shearer made a crunching tackle on Andy Doerr. Despite
playing the ball away from Doerr, Shearer's momentum and
force in the challenge (which was considerable) caused
him to connect with the Sittingbourne striker's standing
leg. The crack from the challenge was heard around Bourne
Park and was regrettably the sound of a serious injury.
After the game confirmation was received that Andy Doerr
had broken his leg in two places and that he would have
to undergo surgery this coming Thursday.
Understandably, Doerr's team mates reacted angrily to
the challenge and referee Con Hatzidakis was left with
little option but to send off Shearer for the challenge
which was reckless rather than malicious.
Alan Walker said after the game "I was a long way
from the incident but the noise alone from the tackle
was enough to make you go 'Oh s**t that's a bad one.'
I feel for Andy. He's a good lad, a local lad and I'm
sure that all Maidstone supporters and all of the Maidstone
staff and players send their best wishes to him and hope
he has a speedy recovery. It's never nice when that happens
to anybody whoever it is, especially on Boxing Day and
so we send him our best regards and hope he recovers quickly."
This incident unsurprisingly galvanised Sittingbourne's
remaining 10 men (they had already made three substitutions)
and they pushed forward on the visitors' goal. A mad scramble
in the penalty area saw Lee Browning's effort hooked from
the line by Royston with the officials waving away desperate
home pleas for a goal. Almost immediately. Maidstone counter
attacked. Alex Tiesse broke at pace and laid the ball
into the path of Nathan Paul who struck the ball past
Williams and into the net. Sadly for The Stones, assistant
referee Mr Adebayo had raised his flag for offside and
the effort was cancelled out, a decision that Walker did
not agree with after the game.
Within seconds, The Brickies were reduced to nine men
when Steve Searle was sent off for kicking out at a Maidstone
player in an off the ball incident. Whether this was a
retaliatory strike or not is open to question but Mr Hatzidakis
saw Searle kick out and dismissed him instantly. A whole
rash of cards were issued in the last 15 minutes of the
game for various misdemeanours and the final card count
was 1 red and 3 yellows for each team. Cards for Browning
(86), Rowland (87) and Joe Dowley (89) show how physical
the game was becoming as it entered the final stages.
With time running out joint Maidstone managers Lloyd Hume
and Alan Walker had voiced their concerns between each
other on the sideline as to their side's ability to last
the full game without conceding a goal and those concerns
came home to roost in stoppage time. Brickies' substitute
Mark Lovell controlled the ball on the very edge of the
Maidstone penalty area and as he shaped to fire in a shot,
a lunging tackle from Jason Barton brought the striker
tumbling down.
Mr Hatzidakis did not hesitate in awarding the penalty
and despite missing his previous two spot kicks, Lovell
stepped up to slam home the 93rd minute penalty into the
left hand corner of the net to earn the home side a point
in a game that neither side fully deserved to win.
Speaking after the match Alan Walker said "We've
got to take heart from the fact that we are unbeaten again
but it is definitely a case of that we have thrown two
points away today, so I am very very disappointed with
that."
"I still think that we were
good value for three points but you must give Sittingbourne
a bit of credit because they've kept going to the death
and got something right at the end."
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