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Maidstone United received a welcome boost ahead of their trip to Salisbury City on Saturday as they knocked Blue Square Premier side Ebbsfleet United out of the Kent Senior Cup.
Although The Fleet did not field a strong side this was a decent performance from The Stones as they made the most of the excellent playing surface at Stonebridge Road.
The home side started brightly and on six minutes Michael West curled the ball into the area for Ishmael Welsh and Scott Ginty to chase. It was Ginty who got on the end of the pass but he could only stab his shot into Jamie Turner’s hands.
As the half wore on The Stones began to enjoy more possession and on 14 minutes Gabriel Odunaike’s hesitation saw an opportunity go begging before Odunaike was once again guilty of not taking advantage of space inside the area on 29 minutes after he had been played in by the excellent Jermaine Darlington.
However, Maidstone did open the scoring with half an hour gone. Darlington was put in on goal but could not get a shot in and so he calmly waited for an opportunity to cross to Lyndon Rowland. Rowland saw his first header saved by Matthew Lamprell but the Ebbsfleet keeper could not hold onto the ball and Rowland fired in the rebound from close range.
Eight minutes later The Stones should have been awarded a penalty when Darlington was body checked inside the area but Maidstone did extend their lead on 66 minutes. Odunaike crossed from the right and substitute James Pinnock managed to knock the ball down to Jay Saunders who swiveled and hooked an fine finish into the net.
Shortly after Pinnock looked to extend The Stones’ lead when he raced into the box but he was denied by an excellent challenge from Steven Springett and then a neat move from Maidstone involving Nathan Paul and Pinnock ended with substitute Shannon O’Donnovan shooting into Lamprell’s hands from the edge of the area.
Then thirteen minutes from time the Ebbsfleet defence made the mistake of backing off substitute Danny Hockton who took full advantage of the situation and he drove the ball into the right hand side of the net from twenty yards.
Ebbsfleet then rallied briefly and ten minutes from time they pulled a goal back when Jordan Collins crossed for Gavin Heeroo to head in at the back post. Scott Ginty then threatened to make the last few moments nervy for The Stones when he shot from a tight angle but Turner made a good save before Heeroo headed over from substitute Will Salmon’s cross one minute from time.
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