For the second time this season Maidstone United have been knocked out of a competition by opposition from a lower league and with Burgess Hill Town the visitors on Saturday in the FA Trophy, The Stones will have to improve if they want to avoid a hat-trick of disappointing cup defeats.

Leatherhead arrived at the Homelands fresh from thrashing Horsham YMCA at the weekend and unsurprisingly they started confidently with Dan Dean drawing Harry Lee into action on six minutes when the Maidstone keeper had to turn his shot from the edge of the area around the post.

But just two minutes later The Stones took the lead when Jake Hobbs delivered a good cross and the in-form Danny Hockton fired in his third goal in as many games.

Leatherhead looked to respond quickly and they went close through Kev Terry and Greg Andrews before on 16 minutes, Terry was left in space on the right hand side of the box and hit a strong drive goalwards only for Lee to make a fine save and push the ball wide.

Three minutes later Tom Hutchins’ free-kick from 25 yards looked to be going in until Lee once again made another excellent stop and then on 38 minutes Dean’s shot was cleared off the line.

However, the visitors did finally equalise four minutes before the break when Hutchins struck a fabulous shot from 30 yards which flew into the back of the net.

There was little to note in the second half until the 66 th minute when both Ashley Ulph and Hutchins saw red and then four minutes later a mistake from the Maidstone defence let Terry in and he had the simple task of rounding Lee and walking the ball into the unguarded net.

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Maidstone United: Danny Hockton 8

Leatherhead: Tom Hutchins 41, Kev Terry 70

Maidstone United: Harry Lee, Ashley Ulph, Ant Bodle, Joe Vines, Peter Hawkins, Simon Glover, Jake Hobbs, Des Boateng, Adrian Stone, Danny Hockton (Ryan Andrews 57), Colin Richmond. Subs not used: Sean Johnson, Jermaine Darlington, Andy Walker.

Leatherhead: Chico Ramos, Liam Pestle, Rob Hill, Chris Boutler, Jon Boswell, Elliott Thompson, Jack Macleod, Dan Dean, Greg Andrews (Gabriel Odunakie 84), Tom Hutchins, Kev Terry. Subs not used: Marc Elston, Danny Hunt, Kwab Agyei, Tom Williams.

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Man of the Match

Pictures from Steve Terrell