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It’s not often that Lloyd Hume has reasons to be positive after a 5-0 defeat but Maidstone’s loss at Blue Square Premier side Ebbsfleet was one of those rare occasions.
For an hour of this game, The Stones matched their full time counterparts until The Fleet’s superior fitness began to take its toll on a Maidstone side weakened by injury and unavailability of key players.
“Until the 60th minute I was delighted with the way we played,” said Hume. “So I am not despondent at all. I think we looked very decent and there are three players not playing today who I know would be in my starting eleven so if you throw those in, all of a sudden we look very strong.”
After experimenting with a back three for a large part of pre-season, Maidstone reverted to a 4-4-2 formation with a back four of Nathan Paul, Ian Cox, Ben Lewis and Elliot Bradbrook. And Bradbrook once again highlighted his versatility by putting in an accomplished performance at left back after demonstrating his ability to roam forwards against Whitstable in mid week.
With five minutes gone, Ian Selley’s deep free-kick into the box was met by Jay Saunders and his header found Lance Cronin’s hands.
Then with just 12 minutes on the clock, some indecisive defending from The Stones was to prove costly as Ebbsfleet took the lead. The goal stemmed from an initial shot from Michael Gash which was well tipped round the post by Andy Walker but from the resultant corner, Maidstone could not get the ball clear and a deep cross picked out the unmarked Stacy Long who scored from an acute angle.
Despite falling behind, Maidstone continued to match the Conference side and on 14 minutes a neat move involving Andy Martin, Narada Pascal and Lloyd Blackman ended with a weak shot from Blackman being comfortably saved by Cronin.
Blackman then had the only remaining opportunities of the first half for The Stones. On 18 minutes, a long Aaron Lacy throw picked out the Maidstone striker and his header landed on the roof of the net. Then seven minutes later, Pascal set up Bradbrook who curled an inviting ball over the top of The Fleet’s defence to leave Blackman one on one with Cronin but unfortunately, Blackman scuffed his shot and the ball dribbled well wide.
Two minutes after the break, John Akinde turned past Cox only for Walker to make a good block with his legs but slowly, Ebbsfleet began to increase the tempo and with 59 minutes gone, they doubled their lead. Lewis was caught out by Akinde’s pace down The Fleet’s right side and Akinde found Long who tapped the ball to Gash and his shot squirmed through Walker’s hands before coming to rest just over the line.
There after, Maidstone simply fell apart as the home side seized control and on 71 minutes, Gash added his second of the afternoon when he moved effortless past Cox and sent a fabulous shot past substitute goalkeeper Steve Northwood from 25 yards.
Just two minutes later, Northwood had to retrieve the ball from the net again as this time, Long opened up Maidstone’s defence before lashing an unstoppable finish into the back of the net.
Akinde then had a good opportunity to further increase Maidstone’s embarrassment on 81 minutes only to nonchalantly put the ball the wrong side of the post but Ebbsfleet did finally add to their tally just three minutes later when Long completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot after Cox was adjudged to have fouled substitute Kwesi Appiah inside the box.
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