3 March 2010

There has been alot of player movement over the last week and with that comes all sorts of speculation, rumours and assumptions so I have been asked to help clear up some of these points.

The first player to leave was Jay Saunders after we received a 7 day request from Margate to speak to him which they are entitled to do as he was a non contract player. Jay is a personal friend and ex team mate of Margate's new manager so although we were disappointed to lose him it was inevitable that he would be presented with an attractive proposition to put pen to paper to spearhead Margate's fight against relegation. Jay helped us settle into our new roles very quickly and we were looking forward to working with him as part of our new management team so it was a great shame to see him go but we wish him well for the future.

Hot on the heels of Jay going we received a request from Nick Barnes to be deregistered although we had not received a 7 day approach from any club! Nick stated he wanted the freedom to be able to join another club as and when the opportunity arose and made himself unavailable for selection immediately. As you are probably aware he also signed for Margate this week, and it is also worth noting that league rules prevent Margate for making more than one 7 day approach for a player from the same club within a 28 day period, make what you want of that!

The very next day Jamie Turner also told us he was leaving and made himself unavailable for selection although once again we had not received any 7 day approach from any club. Initially Jamie did not ask to be deregistered but after a few days he did and he too has now signed for Margate! We moved quickly to sign a replacement and we were delighted that we managed to agree a loan deal with Billericay for Andy Walker to return between the sticks for us again and we were especially pleased with his superb performance against his old club last night!

We must also confirm that unfortunately James Pinnock played his last game for the club last night, Pinno informed us last week that he wanted to leave but made himself available to play against Harrow Borough and Billericay. Pinno gave 100%+ effort in both of those games and we thank him for his professionalism during this period and also wish him well at his new club which will be announced shortly but we are sure you will probably guess correctly!

On Monday evening we completed the signing of Antonio Gonnella in time for him to make his second debut of the season for Maidstone last night and he made a promising start to his second spell and we are also pleased to announce that Dean Hernandez-Bradshaw has agreed to return to the club and will be available for selection at the weekend. We are also in discussion with a couple of other possible signings and we will keep you posted on these as they progress through the correct channels! Hopefully we can now work with a settled squad and put behind us the traumas of unpaid players wages etc and focus on the real reason we are here which is to ensure Maidstone United FC are successful on the football pitch.

We collected 3 valuable points against Billericay last night and it was particularly pleasing to get them at the Homelands as we know we desperately need to improve our home results. It was a battling team display which was made even more strenuous by the condition of the pitch and it was great to see Danny Hockton's hard work rewarded with a cracking strike that flew past the keeper for the only goal of the game. We competed better in the second half and stemmed the flow from their central midfield pairing and we also defended in numbers when required. Although it was a good all round team performance a special mention to Edgey who looked quality in an unfamiliar centre half role. We were hanging on at bit at the end and matters were made worse with the harsh sending off for Steve Elliott, in our opinion neither tackle was malicious and whilst we certainly do not want to curb his enthusiasm hopefully he will learn from this as well.

We now need to show the same level of commitment and desire in our remaining games to make sure we climb away from the relegation zone and we need a sizeable squad to allow for injuries etc as the games are coming thick and fast. On the injury front Nathan has strained some of the ligaments in his knee and expects to be out of action for a couple of weeks whilst Tom Parkinson suffered a groin injury during the warm up last night and is also expected to be out for a fortnight. You can be rest assured that our physio Nicky Collins will be working intensively with both players to get them back in action as soon as possible. Also missing will be PK as he has one more game to serve of his 4 match suspension.

Finally we are delighted that Peter Hawkins has accepted the role of Club captain as he has a great attitude and professional outlook to the game and is well respected by all of the players and club officials.

Hope to see and hear you all at Sutton on Saturday.