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After a draw in the FA Trophy
away at Waltham Forest, it is now three weeks since
Maidstone last picked up a win but at least their long
wait for a home game is nearly over as the two teams
will meet again on Tuesday night.
“I don’t think it was a good game,”
said Alan Walker afterwards. “But I am just happy
to be in the hat and able to take them back to our place.
We gave our lads a bit of a roasting afterwards and
I was annoyed with the players for their lack of professionalism.
We are looking forward to getting back to Homelands
on Tuesday night where I think we can get it down and
play it around a bit and if we do we will batter them.”
In recent weeks The Stones have struggled in front
of goal but against Waltham Forest they did at least
create more opportunities and the first of these came
with just eight minutes played. Nick Barnes sent a deep
corner into the area which was headed back across the
box by James Peacock and Jay Saunders stabbed the ball
to James Pinnock who saw his shot cleared off the line.
Then ten minutes later a good move down the left saw
Roland Edge curl the ball into the path of Keelan Mooney
who picked out Pinnock on the edge of the box and his
low drive looked destined for the left hand corner of
the next until Sam Tanner intervened with a good save
to tip the ball round the post.
However, The Stones had more luck on 24 minutes when
Ant Bodle whipped in a good cross which was headed back
towards the right hand post by Saunders and Matthew
Wright nipped in to score his first goal for Maidstone
with a header from close range.
Unfortunately for The Stones though their advantage
lasted just ten minutes as Waltham Forest broke quickly
following a United attack and former Maidstone player
Pedro Knight picked out Andre Humphrey-Modeste who was
in acres of space in the box and he had an age to turn
and shoot past the stranded Jamie Turner.
One minute before the break Barnes drove in a dangerous
corner which reached Roland Edge and his header clipped
the bar before going over and this was to prove the
last action on goal for twenty minutes until Wright’s
header from another Barnes corner dropped onto the roof
of the net as the second half turned into a dull affair.
It was not until thirteen minutes from time that Maidstone
went close to scoring again when Barnes lifted a free-kick
into the box and Wright dived to head the ball goalwards
but Tanner once again produced a good save to divert
the ball behind for a corner.
Then on 87 minutes Peter Hawkins picked out Wright
with a long ball and the on-loan striker unselfishly
passed to the arriving Barnes only for the Maidstone
midfielder to lift the ball just over the bar from a
good position.
As the game moved into stoppage time at the end of
the match the home side upped the tempo and they could
have snatched a winner when Luke Stanley curled a free-kick
into the area which was met by Danny Gabriel but the
former Sporting Bengal striker failed to hit the target
with his header.
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