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For an hour of this closely contested game, it seemed
as in all probability that the game would finish goal
less.
However, as is often the case, a hotly disputed was
he offside/wasn’t he offside goal sent the balance
of the game tipping in favour of the home side. Tony
Finn’s corner was headed clear by Mario McNish
and was then hooked back into the penalty area. The
ball was loftily headed over Pat Mullin by substitute
Richard Butler and to the astonishment of The Stones’
defence, the goal was given.
Speaking after the game, skipper Sam Tydeman commented
“Normally you know in your heart of hearts when
a goal is offside or not, even if you protest at the
time. You’ll come off the pitch and reflect to
yourself that it was probably a goal but today, we’ve
all come off the pitch knowing that the goal was offside.
All of the players, including theirs, thought he was
off. Unfortunately the linesman didn’t.”
Prior to this setback, The Stones had weathered and
repelled everything that The Dons could throw at them.
Robin Shroot’s 6th minute header struck Pat Mullin’s
cross bar but that aside, Maidstone’s defence held
firm. The outstanding central defensive pairing of Lee
Shearer and Mario McNish consistently won their aerial
battles, whilst Nathan Paul competed well against former
Metropolitan Police striker Tony Finn who was very lively
all afternoon.
The home side’s Michael Haswell shone brightly
throughout the game and after 18 minutes headed narrowly
over from Finn’s accurate corner. Despite the efforts
of the home side, Stones were always capable of responding
in kind and just before half time, Rob Owen, Lynden
Rowland and Luis Cumbers combined sweetly but Cumbers’
run into the penalty area was thwarted by a great tackle
from Dons’ skipper Jason Goodliffe.
After going a goal behind, United then switched to
three out and out strikers as Tiesse joined the fray.
He was soon engaged in a foot race with Finn on the
left flank over 45 yards, a race that eventually won
Maidstone a free kick. Roared on by close on 300 travelling
supporters located at the Kingston Road end of the ground,
Sam Tydeman sent in a free kick which was headed powerfully
towards goal by Errison Ahwan. The header had good pace
and beat Andy Little in the home goal but the effort
also fell just wide of the goal.
The deciding goal came from the impressive Finn. A
throw-in close to half way bounced away from the chest
of Craig Roser (who put in a great 90 minutes on his
comeback from injury.) Finn picked up the loose ball
and superbly lobbed Mullin from 25 yards out. Within
two minutes, the only bad challenge of the game happened
on halfway in front of the main stand. Sam Tydeman’s
full length lunge at Tony Finn was appallingly late,
resulting in the home player hitting the deck hard.
Finn got up and clearly annoyed, pushed Tydeman in the
chest. Players from both sides quickly separated the
two players and fortunately for both men, referee Mr
Forrester applied common sense rather than the law of
the game by issuing each man with a yellow card. You
could only help feeling that if Finn had not retaliated,
then Tydeman would have walked, so poor was his challenge.
The crowd of 2648, the biggest that Maidstone United
had played in front of since their reformation, were
perpetually noisy throughout this game. Given the facilities
offered by Kingsmeadow and the passion shown by both
sets of fans, was this really a game at Step 3 of the
football pyramid? For AFC Wimbledon and their followers,
maybe this was just another game but for The Stones
it was most definitely a glimpse of the excitement that
may be to come in the future at James Whatman Way.
PHOTOS FROM STEVE TERRELL
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