| At
the fourth attempt Maidstone United got their first
win of the season as they comfortably saw off Carshalton
Athletic.
The Stones did not look like a side that had conceeded
seven goals at the weekend as they started brightly
and despite spells of uncertain defending, they dominated
large periods of the game.
On seventeen minutes The Stones nearly gifted Carshalton
the opening goal. Gary Drewett's corner was dropped
by Pat Mullin and from just six yards out John Cartledge
lashed the ball wide.
United survived another couple of spells of indecisive
defending and then on twenty seven minutes The Stones
finally scored their first goal of the season. Mo Takaloo
flicked a long pass forward to Nick Hegley who ran down
the left and pulled the ball back to Lynden Rowland.
Rowland controlled the ball with his back to goal and
spun round before shooting and after what seemed an
age, the ball finally entered the net.
The goal visibly lifted The Stones and on thirty six
minutes a good move down the left hand side ended with
Nathan Paul crossing for Mo Takaloo who spooned the
ball over the bar.
However, within a minute Maidstone extended their lead
when John Cartledge made the sort of mistake that has
plagued The Stones defence in recent games. A ball forwards
from Ray Freeman appeared to be harmless enough but
some how Cartledge failed to pass the ball back to Aaron
Howe and Errison Ahwan nipped in to finish deftly into
the far corner of the net.
It took until the forty second minute for the visitors
to threaten the Maidstone goal when Ruggles got in behind
the defence down the left hand side and unleashed a
powerful drive from the edge of the box which was expertly
tipped onto the bar by Pat Mullin.
Then on fifty two minutes Mo Takaloo registed his opening
goal of the campaign. At half time Aaron Lacy had replaced
Rob Owen who had been suffering with a tight hamstring
and it was from a Lacy trademark throw that Takaloo
scored with a fantastic overhead kick.
It was then Mullin's turn to star when he made two
excellent saves inside two minutes. On sixty one minutes
Lee Shearer could not head the ball clear and it dropped
kindly to Ruggles who struck an early shot which was
palmed round the post by Mullin. Then sixty seconds
later Gary Drewett's corner came out to substitute Jack
McLeod and Mullin had to fling himself to his left to
tip the ball wide.
Another Lacy throw on sixty four minutes picked out
Shearer but he headed wide and then at the other end
Jamie King had an opportunity for the visitors but he
fired the ball wide when well placed.
With twelve minutes remaining, Carshalton sent on Christopher
Day and he nearly had an immediate impact as he ran
onto the pitch to meet Drewett's corner and Mullin managed
to scramble his shot round the post.
Then from the resultant corner, The Stones nearly gifted
Athletic a goal when there was a mix-up in defence and
Rowland's attempted clearance hit the post before going
wide.
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