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Maidstone United’s interest in the FA Trophy has been ended after they were dumped out of the competition by the leaders of the British Gas Premier Division, Swindon Supermarine.
The Stones never really got going in this tie and apart from when James Pinnock hit the post on 20 minutes, they didn’t threaten Matt Bulman’s goal until stoppage time and in fact, the Swindon keeper did not even have a save to make.
Maidstone were not helped by the fact that the referee, Mr Phipps, bizarrely awarded the home side a penalty on the stroke of half time but in the second half Swindon were the better side and The Stones had Andy Walker to thank for keeping the score down as The Stones’ keeper made a number of good saves.
The first good opportunity of the game fell to Ash Edenborough on 16 minutes when the Swindon player found himself in space just inside the box but he shot wide and then four minutes later, a good Stones move saw Roland Edge whip in a dangerous cross which was not dealt with by Danny Allen and the ball fell to James Pinnock who hit the right hand post.
With 22 minutes gone, Supermarine opened up the Maidstone defence and Edenborough found Nick Stanley whose drive looked to be creeping into the net until Walker’s legs intervened and the ball squirmed wide.
The Stones don’t seem to be having much luck when it comes to penalties at the moment and their misfortune on this front continued as the game entered first half stoppage time. After being denied a clear penalty last week in the FA Cup, this time Maidstone saw the opposition gifted a spot-kick after Mr Phipps thought he had seen shirt pulling in the box. Steve Cook was presented with the opportunity and he sent Walker the wrong way to give the home side the advantage at the break.
Maidstone tried to up the tempo after the interval but they fell further behind on the hour when a defensive mix-up led to Chris Taylor scoring.
Two minutes later, a decent move down the left ended with Edge crossing the ball which was knocked down by Jay Saunders and Lloyd Blackman blasted his shot into the trees behind the goal but as the game moved towards full time, Supermarine three chances to increase their lead. On 78 minutes, Stanley’s curling shot was expertly tipped round the post by Walker and three minutes later, Edge accidentally passed the ball into the path of Stanley who entered the box and once again was denied by the Maidstone keeper.
Then five minutes from time, Walker made his finest save of the afternoon as he some how got an arm to Alan Griffen’s shot from close range.
With United desperately searching for a goal, Saunders, Ian Selley and Pinnock all found themselves with opportunities to score as the game entered stoppage time but unfortunately for The Stones, on each occasion the ball sailed over the bar.
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