| Alan Walker and
Lloyd Hume held a “clear the air” meeting
with the entire first team squad prior to Monday evening’s
training session in which plenty of home truths were
told to Maidstone’s currently underperforming
players. If tonight’s performance was anything
to go by, then those “home truths” certainly
hit home as The Stones overcame a spirited and attack
minded Canvey Island side by 5-2.
Without a doubt, this was the most entertaining fixture
played at Bourne Park this season, the only disappointing
facet of the evening being the extremely low crowd of
131that witnessed this feast of goals and action. The
game was used by The Stones’ management to give
playing time to those players that had either been warming
the substitute’s bench in recent games, those
that were returning from injury, or indeed to “blood”
some of the club’s promising youngsters.
The game’s first notable incident came in the
11th minute and was a cause for concern for all present.
An Aaron Lacy throw-in was flicked on towards goal and
Ray Freeman (playing in an advanced left sided position)
met the ball with his head in front of goal. Unfortunately,
this coincided with an attempted clearance by a Canvey
defender and Freeman was laid out cold by the impact.
Thanks to quick thinking from Andy Martin on the field,
Freeman was placed into the recovery position prior
to physios Tim Warden and Frank Brooks arriving in the
goal mouth. After a few minutes of treatment Freeman
was able to walk from the pitch but he was immediately
replaced by Youth team captain Butch Ulph.
Within a minute of the substitution, United were a goal
ahead with The Islanders seemingly lacking in concentration
after the delay. Sam Tydeman, who was making his first
start since his suspension and injury absence, played
the ball out to the right and Alex Tiesse used his pace
to scamper into the penalty area before shooting low
to the left of goalkeeper Ricky Wiseman. The keeper
only managed to parry the ball across his goal to where
Luis Cumbers was positioned and he had the simple task
of tapping home from a yard out.
The visitors, who showed positive attacking intent throughout
the game, came back strongly and were very unlucky not
to equalize just three minutes later. Danny Francis
fired a shot past Pat Mullin from just inside the penalty
area only to see the ball cannon back off the inside
of the post. The rebound caught the diving Mullin on
the side of his face and somehow bounced across his
goal and away to safety. Mullin then produced an excellent
double save. Leon Gordon weaved his way past three tackles
and saw Mullin stop his effort well, however the rebound
fell to Francis and the Maidstone keeper somehow pulled
off a superb reflex stop at the expense of a corner.
Within two minutes, Mullin was in action again as Francis
struck a 20 yard free kick that deflected off of the
top of the defensive wall. Stones’ in form keeper
dived full length to turn the ball away for another
corner.
Inevitably, the visitors’ pressure resulted in
an equalizer and this came from an error from the otherwise
outstanding young centre back Chris Smalling. A mistimed
header back to goal allowed Ian Luck to ghost in on
goal and he made no mistake in rifling the ball past
the unprotected Stones’ keeper. The vocal and
enthusiastic Canvey fans celebrated wildly at this leveller.
The Stones had threatened the visiting goal throughout
the first half from set pieces. Andy Martin in particular
was delivering high quality crosses into the heart of
the Canvey penalty area and several players could have
scored as Lee Shearer and Alex Tiesse both went close
with headers. The pairing of Cumbers and Tiesse up front
gave Maidstone some significant bite as they poured
forward and both players complimented each others’
intelligent running with a great supply of accurate
passes. The home side once again took the lead just
on the stroke of half time. Another mazy run from Tiesse
saw him forced wide to the left flank but the Ivorian
beat his marker and pulled the ball back along the floor
into the path of Martin who lashed the ball past Wiseman
from 12 yards out.
The Stones increased their advantage just 10 minutes
into the second half. A superb through ball from Cumbers
released Tiesse and he adeptly took the ball around
the advancing keeper. Wiseman instinctively challenged
the pacy striker but in doing so conceded a clear penalty.
Wiseman was cautioned for his indiscretion (the only
card of a good tempered match) but he could do nothing
as Tiesse nonchalantly stroked the ball past him as
if it was a training ground kick about.
Within two minutes there was controversy at the other
end as assistant referee Neil Wallace ruled out a “goal”
from Gordon. Great approach play from Luck was complimented
by a rasping shot into the net from the centre forward.
The Canvey players and fans alike celebrated as they
thought that they were back in the game at 3-2. However,
their joy was quickly turned to anger as Mr Mackrell
acknowledged the raised flag for offside. Considering
that the Essex team’s supporter barely mustered
double figures behind the goal, the noise created by
those fans in response to this decision was unbelievable!
Lesser men than Messrs Mackrell and Wallace would have
wilted in the face of such vitriol!
This decision appeared to temporarily knock some of
the spirit out of the Canvey side and United capitalised
on this by increasing their lead in the 66th minute.
Mullin’s long clearance was missed by The Islanders’
central defenders and Tiesse was afforded plenty of
time to run through and slot the ball past Wiseman for
his second goal of the evening. This Canvey Island side
would not throw the towel in though and just four minutes
later a close range shot from Ryan Edgar was miraculously
tipped onto the cross bar by Mullin with what was a
superb reaction save.
Maidstone themselves struck the woodwork a few minutes
later when Martin’s corner kick was powered against
the bar by the head of Shearer. Substitute Jamie Maxton
was then denied an opening goal for the club when Wiseman
foiled him in a one on one situation. Inevitably though,
a fifth goal arrived for Maidstone. Tiesse once more
broke down the right flank and delivered a lovely cross
for Maxton. The strongly built centre forward headed
deftly goalwards and there at the back post was Cumbers
to knock home his second goal of the night. The loanee
from Gillingham has now scored 4 goals in just 2½
games for The Stones. Despite the inevitability of defeat
at this stage of the game, Canvey continued to go forward
and they were rewarded with a fine 20 yard strike by
Chris Bourne with just two minutes of time left to play.
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