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For the third time this season Maidstone United have been dumped out of a cup competition by lower league opposition.
With key players injured or cup tied for this fixture, Andy Ford was forced to make four changes to the side that had performed so well at Carshalton and unfortunately Maidstone fell well short of the standard required to have made progress in the FA Trophy.
This game could have had a different outcome had The Stones taken advantage of their early dominance. Straight from the kick off Tom Parkinson lifted the ball over the top of The Hawks’ defence to Tommy Whitnell whose early shot failed to trouble Rhys Madden in the Harlow goal.
Eight minutes later the home side had their first opportunity of the afternoon when Andy Walker rushed out of his goal and got caught out by James Peagram but the Harlow striker shot wide from a tight angle.
Then on 19 minutes Peagram cut inside Cedric Abraham only to shoot straight at Walker and Peagram was involved again ten minutes later when Maidstone lost possession from their own throw leaving the Harlow striker to pull the ball back to Steve Ferguson who blasted the opportunity out of the ground.
However, the deadlock was broken five minutes from time when a poor corner from The Stones lead to The Hawks breaking quickly and Colin Richmond failed to stop the ball reaching Peagram who confidently fired the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net.
Less than one minute after the break had past when things got even worse for The Stones when the Maidstone defence failed to deal with a long throw from Ferguson and Peagram headed the ball in at the far post.
Harlow continued to put the visitors under pressure and they further extended their lead on 54 minutes when once again the Maidstone’s defence was caught short and Che Stadhart was left with the task of dispatching the ball past Walker.
Maidstone briefly rallied and they created a couple of half chances but none of these tested Rhys Madden and The Stones were fortunate not to concede a fourth goal on 71 minutes when a moment of confusion between Walker, Ashley Ulph and Abraham resulted in Ferguson lobbing the ball goalwards only for it to strike the bar.
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