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Maidstone United’s good home form this season saw an expectant Bourne Park crowd leave for home a touch disappointed last night, as twice, visitors Harrow Borough came from behind to deny the hosts maximum points. A more positive attacking performance from The Stones was counteracted by two pieces of sloppy defending, something that annoyed both Lloyd Hume and Alan Walker.
Maidstone started with the same XI that began the game on Saturday against Leyton, meaning that striker Mo Takalobighashi again had to be content with a place on the bench despite scoring on Saturday. Errison Ahwan continued at right back which allowed Nathan Paul to play in a more advanced right of midfield position.
Paul was able to exploit space on the right flank and in combination with hard working strikers Andy Martin and Luis Cumbers, they asked plenty of questions of the Borough defence. After 12 minutes Martin threaded a great pass through to Cumbers but for once, he failed to convert his one on one chance with goalkeeper Gary Ross and his lob was comfortably gathered. The opening goal arrived 10 minutes later. Martin flicked on a header for Cumbers to chase down the right flank. The Gillingham loanee outmuscled the experienced Nick Burton and drilled in a low, hard cross into the penalty area. Paul arrived at pace and knocked home the ball for his first goal in 18 months.
Nick Hegley, who was having a strong game (both in an attacking sense and with his closing down of opposition) struck a 30 yard shot narrowly over the bar just five minutes later and just two minutes after, Hegley and Cumbers combined well with Hegley’s low cross going across the face of the goal and agonisingly close to the boot of Martin who could not quite stretch far enough to divert the ball home.
Harrow had not really tested Pat Mullin in The Stones’ goal until in the 33 rd minute, following a cross from Wayne Walters, Elliot Onochie powered a close range effort towards goal. Mullin pulled off a superb reaction save to tip the ball over the bar for a corner. Onochie then tested Mullin again when he struck a low snap shot through a crowded penalty area. The Stones’ stopper got down well and held the shot firmly. On the stroke of half time, Lee Shearer’s searching ball out of defence was controlled by Cumbers. He linked up with Paul who pulled the ball back to Hegley. The wide man shifted the ball onto his favoured left foot and clipped a good shot narrowly over Ross’ cross bar.
Harrow’s strike force came to Bourne Park with a reputation for lightning pace, however, United’s defence had stifled this aspect of the game fairly well in the first half. Therefore, it was massively frustrating to see the way in which Maidstone conceded the equalizer just four minutes into the second half. A routine free kick from Dan Nielsen on the half way line evaded some hesitant Stones defenders on the edge of the area. The ball was allowed to bounce and Mullin came out of his goal to gather but failed to do so under pressure from Onochie. The Borough striker then drilled his shot home from 12 yards past a couple of defenders in the six yard box. Undeniably it was a poor goal to concede but any number of Maidstone players could have taken the blame for their fallibility in conceding this goal.
Two minutes later, almost everybody in the ground thought that Ahwan had restored The Stones’ lead. Martin’s corner was powered towards goal by the head of Ahwan but Ross pulled off an absolutely magnificent full length diving save to keep Borough on level terms. From the resultant corner (again from Martin), the ball was only partially cleared by the Harrow defence. It fell to Craig Roser (who is not noted for his goalscoring prowess) and he smashed a 30 yard shot towards the bottom left hand corner of the goal. Again, Ross in the goal made a great save, this time tipping the ball around the upright.
The home side eventually restored their lead in the 60 th minute. Shearer pumped a free kick forward and this was flicked on by the head of Ben Lewis. Martin had made a good run around the back of the Harrow defence and was able to stab the ball into the net before Ross could gather the ball. This lead only lasted eight minutes though as, yet again the Maidstone defence failed to deal with a routine long free kick from Nielsen. This time Lewis hesitated and the ball fell to substitute Danny McGonigle who drove the ball home with a first time shot.
PICTURES FROM STEVE TERRELL
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