| A sloppy performance from The Stones saw their mini unbeaten run brought to a halt as they conceded a late winner away at lowly Carshalton Athletic.
Although it took the home side until the 90th minute to score the decisive goal, The Robins should have made sure of the victory earlier in the game but they couldn’t make the breakthrough thanks to a combination of some wasteful finishing and an excellent performance from Steve Northwood in the Maidstone goal.
Carshalton’s Michael Johnson enjoyed a lot of possession down the left hand flank in the first half and on 10 minutes he beat Danny Walder and crossed for James Evans who put his header over the bar.
Two minutes later, The Stones had their first attack on goal when Nathan Paul hooked a delightful pass to Alex Tiesse on the right. He pushed forwards before drilling the ball across the box to Mo Takaloo whose shot smacked into a defender before the rebound came to Ray Freeman and his weak effort was also blocked.
Then on 16 minutes, Carshalton opened the scoring when Johnson once again beat Walder and sent over a cross. With Northwood coming to try and claim the ball he was left helpless as Phil Ruggles arrived to power his header into the net.
However, Maidstone responded to falling behind in the best possible manner as within two minutes they were level. Walder’s corner from the right picked out James Peacock who registered his first senior goal for The Stones with a header that had too much power for Aaron Howe in the Carshalton goal.
On 26 minutes, Maidstone should have edged in front when Rob Owen picked out Tiesse whose first shot was stopped by Howe and from the rebound, Tiesse failed to react quickly enough and the ball was cleared.
Eight minutes later, Craig Roser lost possession to Rob Ursell who squared the ball to Tony Quinton and his low shot was turned round the post by Northwood.
Then on 37 minutes, Johnson escaped the attention of both Walder and Owen before passing to Dean Carpenter who fired a shot goalwards which looked to be going in before Northwood made an excellent save to tip the ball wide.
All too often in the second half, The Stones could not get the ball properly clear and so they found themselves under pressure as the home side pushed forwards. Within seconds of the restart, Carshalton broke quickly from a Maidstone corner and Johnson crossed for Quinton but his header went into Northwood’s hands.
Ursell then had a couple of attempts on goal for The Robins before on 62 minutes Quinton’s header from a cross was expertly saved by the diving Northwood.
Substitute Aaron Lacy was then guilty of a poor clearance which fell straight to Quinton who played Jack Macleod in and he wastefully lashed the ball wide.
Maidstone then had a great opportunity to punish The Robins for their poor finishing when on 67 minutes, Nathan Paul sent over a great cross. With three Stones players queuing up to receive the ball, the opportunity fell to Owen who put his header too close to Howe who made a good save and then substitute Steffan Gaisie dithered over the rebound and the chance was lost.
Northwood then denied Quinton once again on 72 minutes before Johnson found himself in a great position with nine minutes to go but instead of shooting he drilled the ball across the edge of the six yard box.
With just one minute remaining, Northwood turned substitute Ryan Watts’ drive from distance round the post but the Maidstone keeper could do nothing to prevent substitute Ben Wright from stabbing the ball into the net in stoppage time.
There was still time for The Stones to have a goal ruled out but an equaliser for the visitors would have harsh on The Robins.
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