|
Despite a heroic performance
from Jamie Turner who was outstanding in the Maidstone
goal, The Stones’ FA Cup dream is over for another
season after they narrowly beaten by Conference South
high flyers Woking.
Although the home side created a number of chances
and were at times wasteful in front of goal, The Stones
were by no means over run and after Dean Hernandez-Bradshaw
hit the bar with an excellent shot, Maidstone will be
disappointed that they could not force a replay.
Just nine minutes had gone when the home side took
an early lead. Aswad Thomas made a good run down the
left wing and played a dangerous low ball into the box
which the Maidstone defence could not cut out and Wilfried
Domoraud had time to spin and fire a great finish past
the stranded Turner.
Three minutes later, Thomas was involved again when
he whipped in another excellent delivery which this
time picked out Giuseppe Sole only for his header to
drop wide of the right hand post.
This seemed to be the cue for Maidstone to up their
game and on 14 minutes a neat move from The Stones ended
with Hernandez-Bradshaw firing wide before Roland Edge
side footed the ball over the bar as he reached to get
on the end of a flick on from Jay Saunders.
Five minutes from the break, Turner made the first
of a series of impressive saves when he managed to tip
Sole’s free-kick from distance onto the bar. Then
on the stroke of half time, there was a scramble in
the Maidstone box and the chance fell to Jamie Hand
who shot through a crowd of players only for Turner
to expertly tip the ball round the post.
Immediately after the restart The Stones were fortunate
not to fall further behind when Nick Barnes conceded
possession to Domoraud who laid the ball off to Sole
but the Woking striker nonchalantly lifted the ball
over the bar with only Turner to beat.
Then on 56 minutes, Sole comfortably raced past Nathan
Paul and pulled the cross back to the edge of the six
yard box where Turner managed to push the ball away
from goal only for it to fall to Domoraud. Just as it
looked as though Domoraud would certainly score, Turner
flung himself across goal to deflect the shot wide.
Six minutes later, Maidstone went agonisingly close
to pulling level when Jay Saunders took the pressure
off The Stones’ defence and immediately sent a
terrific ball forwards to Hernandez-Bradshaw who cut
inside and unleashed a drive which crashed off the cross
bar.
The home side then had their best spell of pressure
of the game and on 67 minutes, Maidstone could not fully
clear Sole’s cross and the ball dropped to Harry
Arter whose shot was blocked on the line. Then two minutes
later, Turner made another great save to deny substitute
Luke Medley before Craig Watkins picked out Domoraud
at the near post only for the Woking striker to blast
the ball wide from a good position.
After a period of goal mouth action the game was stopped
after the referee, Mr Laver, became injured and this
meant that Stones fan Barry Fenn answered the appeal
for a qualified referee to run the line much to the
amusement of the large travelling contingent of Maidstone
fans.
When the game restarted, Woking continued to look
to kill the game off but The Stones began to move forwards
more often and their best chance to grab an equaliser
came five minutes into stoppage time when Jay Saunders
tried to pick out Matthew Wright inside the area but
he placed the ball too close to the Woking keeper Ross
Worner.
Then with the game deep in additional time and with
most of the Maidstone side camped inside the Woking
half, the ball came out to substitute Medley who ran
into the box and he coolly slotted the ball past Turner
to seal Woking’s victory.
|
