Errison Ahwan has set his sights on being a goal machine for Maidstone United this season after netting his second goal in as many pre-season games away at Erith and Belverdere.
Last season, Ahwan scored eleven league goals for The Stones but this year he has greater ambitions as he revealed after the game against The Deres: “I just want to keep scoring as there is a lot of competition now. Last year I managed to get a few winners and I just hope that I can get a lot more this year. I have set myself a target of fifteen goals this season and in fact the way things are going now, I am going to raise that to twenty!” said Ahwan.
It took just ten minutes for Ahwan to register himself on the score sheet. Craig Wilkins whipped in a cross to the far post, which Nick Hegley managed to head back into the six yard box where Ahwan was lurking, and he crashed his header in on off a combination of the crossbar and goalkeeper Grant Wallis.
Just a minute before this though, The Stones could have found themselves a goal behind. A Belvedere free-kick took a hefty deflection off Roberto Corbishley and as the ball looped up into the air, it threatened to come down under the cross bar. Despite the strong sunshine, Pat Mullin managed to claw the ball out from under the bar but it fell to Lee Morgan who smacked his shot against the right hand post.
However, United were enjoying the greater share of possession and on thirteen minutes, Ahwan’s cross was met by Hegley and his header had to be tipped over the bar by Wallis.
On sixteen minutes, a superb defence splitting pass from Nathan Paul put Jason Barton clear only for Barton to hit his shot straight at Wallis then two minutes later, Paul repeated this feat to put Alex Tiesse in but the Maidstone striker shot across the face of goal.
Both sides made a number of changes at half time and this inevitably affected the flow of the game although The Deres looked a stronger side as a result of their substitutions. On fifty minutes, the home side began to put the United defence under pressure and as The Stones struggled to clear, the ball fell to Adrian Dean who unleashed a fierce drive which was acrobatically saved by Mullin.
Five minutes later, substitute Simon Austin should have doubled United’s lead but like Tiesse in the first half, he seemed reluctant to shoot and when he eventually did he could only find Wallis’ hands.
Austin was guilty of wasting a similar chance on sixty eight minutes after he was picked out by a good pass from Barton before Mullin was called into action to save a swerving shot from Matt Johnson at the base of the left hand post.
Then with the game pottering towards a conclusion,
Aaron Lacy raced down the right hand side and sent over
a deep cross which was headed into the net by Mo Takaloo
to ensure that Maidstone continued their good start
to their pre-season campaign.
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