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Maidstone United’s short unbeaten start to the season has been ended after they missed a number of chances and Harlow came from behind to register their first win of the new campaign.
Like a number of games last season, this was a match that The Stones should have won but their stuttering performance was not helped by the whistle happy referee, Mr Linden, who awarded a number of free-kicks for no apparent reason.
Indeed, Harlow’s winner came from one such set piece but by that point, Maidstone should have been in control of the game.
With just three minutes played, The Stones had a good opportunity to take the lead when Kevin Watson’s long throw was headed on by Jay Saunders to the unmarked Lloyd Blackman but his poor effort missed the target.
Eight minutes later, Ian Cox was caught in possession by Jamie Richards who advanced forward and smacked a shot from long range into the advertising hoardings behind Andy Walker’s goal.
A neat move on 13 minutes resulted in Elliot Bradbrook receiving the ball at the back post and from a tight angle he blasted the ball across the face of goal.
By now, Roland Edge had been replaced by Andy Martin and the Maidstone substitute was immediately called into action when he challenged for the ball just a few yards from goal only for the Harlow keeper, James Hassel, to make a good block.
Hassel had clearly taken a knock during this process and Nathan Paul tried to capitalise just seconds later when he tried to stretch the Harlow keeper with a shot from 20 yards but his drive whistled over the bar.
Despite Bradbrook being pushed back into defence following the substitution of Edge, he was still looking the most threatening Maidstone player moving forwards and on 23 minutes he received the ball from Ian Selley before hitting a low shot goalwards which went just wide.
Then just past the half an hour mark, Bradbrook intercepted a pass in the Maidstone half and raced forward. Blackman peeled off to the left into space and Bradbrook found Martin who curled a weak shot into the arms of Hassel.
However, the deadlock was finally broken on 38 minutes when Selley was fouled close to the edge of the area and Bradbrook smashed a fantastic left footed finish into the net off the underside of the crossbar.
Three minutes before the break, a free-kick from Selley was headed wide by Blackman before the visitors equalised on the stroke of half time. Bradbrook got caught out of position which enabled Jordan Fowler to cross for Richards to head past Walker.
Equalising so late in the first half gave Harlow the momentum when the sides reappeared after the interval and on 51 minutes, Ben Lewis conceded a free-kick outside the box which Mark Taylor curled goalwards and Walker made a good save to claw the ball away from just under the bar. Then from the resultant corner, Clark Akers’ delivery looked to be swinging into the net until Walker again intervened and tipped the ball away.
On 57 minutes though, there was nothing Walker could do to stop Maidstone falling behind as Ben Lewis apparently committed a foul on the edge of the area and Taylor curled a delightful finish past the stranded Stones keeper.
With 20 minutes remaining, Maidstone should have equalised. Substitute Meshach Nugent was providing some much needed physical presence up front and he powerfully flicked the ball into the path of Paul who crossed for the unmarked Saunders and disappointingly, he placed his header wide of the left hand post.
Six minutes later, Selley’s corned picked out Nugent and his strong header only just flew over the goal but this was to be the last time The Stones threatened the Harlow goal as despite being reduced to ten men when Leon Lalite was dismissed on 79 minutes, the visitors comfortably held on to the three points.
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