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After suffering three defeats in a row, Maidstone United have halted their terrible run of form and following a spirited performance against Aveley who had won just two of their previous five games, The Stones will be disappointed not to have picked up their first home win of the season.
This game could had have a different outcome had two penalty decisions not gone against Maidstone. The first of these came on nine minutes when the visitors were awarded a spot kick after Orlando Smith swept past Peter Hawkins and gave the ball to Abs Thompson who the referee, Mr Linden, decided was fouled as he tried to go round Andy Walker. The Maidstone keeper was booked and despite getting good contact with the penalty Walker couldn’t prevent Smith from scoring.
Four minutes later The Stones should have drawn level when Colin Richmond’s free-kick into the area was lifted into space by Danny Hockton and it fell to Joe Vines who blasted the ball over the bar from close range.
Shortly afterwards a scramble in the Aveley area ended with Hawkins side footing the ball wide and then on 21 minutes Hockton’s free-kick from twenty yards was turned round the post by David McCartney in the Aveley goal.
However, on 33 minutes Hockton did find his way past McCartney when he gained possession on the edge of the box and he turned into space before curling an exquisite shot into the left hand side of the net to register his second goal for the The Stones in as many games.
The second half was initially quite quiet apart from one chance early on when Maidstone should have taken the lead but Adrian Stone’s rising shot from inside the box crashed off the underside of the bar and was cleared from danger by the Aveley defence.
Then as the game moved towards full time The Stones suddenly started to pile pressure on the opposition and on 82 minutes a swift break from Maidstone saw Simon Glover pick out Stone at the back post who from a tight angle headed wide. Seconds later Stone was to have another chance when he got in behind the Aveley defence on the right hand side of the box and from a good position he shot at the near post and failed to hit the target.
But there was to be a controversial decision three minutes later when Danny Hockton appeared to be upended in the box as he tried to shoot. Mr Linden, however, did not think that Hockton was fouled and to make matters worse showed a second yellow card to the unfortunate Maidstone striker.
Sixty seconds later, The Stones saw another penalty appeal ignored when this time James Peacock seemed to be impeded by McCartney inside the area and Aveley quickly broke with substitute David Knight forcing Andy Walker into an important save at the other end.
With Maidstone pushing forwards in search of a winner they were leaving space at the back and one minute from time substitute Matt Judge found Smith inside the box but fortunately for The Stones, Walker once again made a good block.
Then with the game deep in stoppage time, The Millers nearly snatched a winner when Judge went past James Peacock and picked out Smith at the back post only for Smith to rush his shot and Walker calmly collected the ball.
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