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A solitary strike from Adrian Stone was enough to ensure that Maidstone United remain a Ryman Premier League side whilst Bognor Regis Town were condemned to their second successive relegation.
After collecting maximum points from just three games up until the Waltham Abbey fixture at The Homelands, The Stones hit form in their remaining home league games and after beating three sides also involved in the relegation battle they can now relax on the last day of the season when they travel to Kingstonian.
Nerves certainly seem to play a part in this game as Maidstone were poor for the first twenty minutes and Bognor dominated the early stages. However, the visitors could not create any clear cut opportunities during this period and as the half wore on The Stones finally started to look more confident.
On 24 minutes, Chris Saunders sent an enticing ball over the Bognor defence which drew Anthony Ender from his goal but Adrian Stone could not connect with the pass.
Then three minutes later, James Peacock failed to stop a through ball to Charlie Marshall who shot straight at Andy Walker and Maidstone broke quickly only for Danny Hockton to head wide from Stone’s cross.
With half an hour gone, Antonio Gonnella sent over a corner from the left which was flicked on by Peacock towards the back post and despite Roland Edge’s best efforts the ball went behind for a goal kick.
Shortly afterwards Jermaine Darlington’s throw should have been cut out by the Bognor defence but the ball came to Chris Saunders who turned and fired wide of the left hand post.
And then four minutes before the break, a good move from The Stones saw Gonnella pass to Hockton who tried to return the ball to Gonnella who went over in the box and the Maidstone player was booked for diving.
After an indifferent first half, Maidstone could not have asked for a better start to the second forty five minutes as within two minutes of the restart Edge headed the ball towards Stone who progressed to the edge of the area and drilled in his third goal for the home side.
Maidstone then enjoyed a spell of concerted pressure and they should have scored again on 58 minutes when Ender got caught on the edge of his area and allowed Stone to go round him but with just one Bognor defender to beat on the line Stone decided to chip the ball goalwards only to see it strike the bar and bounce away to safety.
Gonnella and Hockton then both had chances for Maidstone but as the game moved towards full time there were nervous moments for The Stones fans as Bognor finally started to threaten.
On 79 minutes, Mick Birmingham sent over a dangerous corner from the right which picked out Tim Bond whose header looked to be going in until Saunders intervened with a vital clearance.
Then just four minutes from time Bognor had a fantastic chance to equalise when the ball dropped to Mickey Demetriou who was close to goal. However, instead of shooting Demetriou tried to go past Peter Hawkins who made an excellent challenge to ensure that Maidstone can now look forward to a fourth season in the Ryman Premier League.
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