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On a beautiful summer's evening
The Stones travelled to the East Kent coast to play
Blue Square South side Dover Athletic at a pristine
looking Crabble. The immaculate playing surface allowed
both sides to serve up an attractive game full of chances,
good passing and intelligent movement.
In a fairly even first half it was Maidstone who created
the first clear cut effort, as Antonio Gonnella ran
down the left flank, cut inside and laid the ball off
for Danny Hockton. The striker's effort flew narrowly
over the Dover cross bar. Within two minutes, The Whites
had a good effort in response as Jon Wallis saw a header
go narrowly wide of Andy Walker's upright. Up front
for Dover, Ben Hunt was a constant threat and after
he was played in through the right hand side of The
Stones' defence, he saw his strong, low drive at goal
tipped away for a corner by the full length dive of
Walker.
Just before the half hour mark came the stand out incident
of the first half, as Wallis hit a thunderous 25 yard
shot towards Walker's top right corner. The keeper showed
remarkable agility to dive full length again to palm
the ball over the bar, a piece of action that brought
warm applause from followers of both teams. A minute
before half time the visitors had a good opportunity
to score. Adrian Stone broke down the right flank and
crossed to Hockton. He controlled the ball into the
path of Gonnella but his sharp shot was blocked at the
expense of a corner.
After a fairly even first half it is fair to say that
the home side had by far the better of the second half
as Maidstone spent long periods defending their goal.
Harry Lee had replaced Walker in goal and the youngster
was relieved to see Sam Cutler's 62nd minute shot strike
the base of the right hand post. The Stones reacted
immediately when Hockton was set through on goal but
a well timed challenge from the Dover defenders conceded
a corner rather than a goal.
In the 69th minute Dover had the ball in the net when
a corner was headed home but referee Lee Venamore saw
an "infringement" and disallowed the effort
much to the displeasure of the home support at the River
End. In fact for the remainder of the half it seemed
as if the majority of the marginal refereeing decisions
favoured the visitors which just served to antagonise
the vocal home support further.
Despite the mounting pressure from the home side, Maidstone
still retained a goal threat and following a lovely
through ball from Colin Richmond, Hockton saw his firm
shot well saved by Dover's Academy keeper Ben Humphries.
Within two Humphries was called into action again as
he blocked an effort from Jake Hobbs. Dover once again
responded to the Stones' offensive efforts as Cutler
hit the woodwork for the second time when his 20 yard
drive struck Lee's cross bar with force.
With a draw looking on the cards, the home side broke
the deadlock in the 88th minute to earn a deserved victory
when Adam Birchill burst through the centre of the Maidstone
defence and slotted a neat show just inside the right
hand post.
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