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Having failed to finish the
job of beating Bury Town at Ram Meadow last Saturday
despite dominating the game for long periods, Maidstone
United finally overcame their well organised and enthusiastic
opponents at Bourne Park last night. A disappointingly
sparse crowd of 222 fans witnessed an entertaining game
that saw The Stones move through to the 2nd Qualifying
Round of the FA Carlsberg Trophy and an away tie at
Abingdon United.
Alan Walker and Lloyd Hume’s pre-match team talk
went straight out of the window as United made a terrible
start to the game. With only 65 seconds played, Bury
moved the ball from right midfield to the central left
midfield position and Saturday’s goal scorer Lee
Reed found him in possession of the ball, free from
an amber shirt, in acres of space and bearing down on
goal. The peroxide blonde striker calmly took his opportunity
to score as he slotted the ball past Pat Mullin who
was left totally exposed by his absent defence.
For 20 minutes, The Stones tried to drag themselves
back into the tie with little success. The nearest they
came to scoring was after Andy Martin dived full length
to turn a Rob Owen cross into Dean Greygoose’s
net.
nfortunately, the Welshman used his hand to “score,”
something that did not escape the attention of referee
Wade Norcott. The subsequent yellow card for Martin
was his fifth caution of the season and now means that
he misses the league fixture away to Heybridge Swifts
on 6th November.
The home side had three good chances to level the
scores in a three minute period. Martin’s 36th
minute corner was met powerfully by the head of Errison
Ahwan at the far post but veteran keeper Greygoose was
able to turn the ball over for another corner. From
the subsequent corner taken by Sam Tydeman, Martin skillfully
trapped the ball with his chest to set up Owen but the
tall midfielder struck his shot narrowly over the visitors’
crossbar. Within 60 seconds, the dangerous Nick Hegley
saw his cross partially cleared by the Town defence.
The ball traveled straight to full back Craig Roser
and his 20 yard drive forced Greygoose to save. On the
stroke of half time, Maidstone had a legitimate claim
for a penalty turned away by Mr Norcott as Lee Shearer’s
driven cross from the right struck Darren Coe’s
raised arm.
Town started the second half in an assertive fashion
when Danny Cornwell beat Ben Lewis and whipped in a
dangerous cross from the by-line. Fortunately for Stones,
Shearer was present to head the ball clear from in front
of his own goal. However, The Stones settled and began
to dominate possession and made most of the attacking
moves. A series of corners eventually resulted in the
equaliser in the 58th minute. Martin supplied a telling
cross to the far post where Shearer was able to rise
unchallenged to head home firmly and therefore repeated
his feat of scoring against Bury Town in last season’s
game at Bourne Park.
Just three minutes later, United had gained the lead
for the first time in the tie. Another corner, this
time from Tydeman was touched between the near and far
posts. The end result was that the ball nestled in the
back of the net. It was one of those rare moments in
football where nobody was quite certain who had actually
scored the goal. Was it direct from Tydeman’s
corner? Did Martin nudge it home? Or was it Luis Cumbers
at the far post? The fact that nobody appeared to lay
claim to scoring possibly gave the clue that it was
a defender who turned it home. In fact it was only some
while later once video had been studied that the goal
was finally “awarded” to Bury Town’s
Tom Bullard.
The Suffolk side had a glorious opportunity to make
it 2-2 in the 64th minute. Shawn Bammant drove a superb
low ball across goal and this was met by Danny Cornwell
just two yards from goal. Amazingly the balllooned up
from the striker’s shin and went over the bar
much to the relief of those of an amber and black inclination.
The game was finally decided by substitute Lynden Rowland
in the 87th minute. Craig Roser had popped up on the
right hand side of the penalty and he delivered a deep
cross beyond the back post. Rowland had lost his marker
and in text book style, he headed the ball back over
and across Greygoose, the ball nestling comfortably
in to the far corner of the goal.
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