Men's 3s vs Canterbury Squires

The 3’s travelled to Polo Farm in Canterbury 45 minutes later than scheduled due to a certain winger enjoying his youth far too much the night before.

A Canterbury win would have put both teams level on points, a result that wouldn’t have been all that surprising considering they recently held league leaders Sevenoaks to a 2-2 draw.

The conditions were less than ideal, but the visitors recent form (3 wins on the bounce) instilled a high level of positivity and calmness in the team prior to pushback.

Maidstone started confidently, shifting the ball round the defence, through the middle and out to the wings. The first attack of the game saw Logan Black fouled outside the D, a smart advantage from the umpire resulted in the ball falling kindly for the MHC captain who struck the ball through the keepers legs to make it 1-0. 5 minutes gone.

Maidstone had the majority of possession for the first half, Canterbury did have their share of short corners, and the first half drew to a close to the relief of Maidstone who were beginning to tire and lose their structure slightly.

Maidstone regrouped and came out even more confident than the first half, a positive team talk and reminders of the excellent first half performances from all (including newly promoted wingers Ed & Scott) caused Wallers men to come flying out of the blocks. A quick, slick, John Wick 1-2 between Ash and Waller allowed Ash to reverse sweep into the bottom corner of an open net. 2-0.

The umpire decided Logan needed a quick rest after being up and down the pitch like a yoyo, and he saw green and was ushered to the sideline for ‘saying nothing to the umpire’.

99% of Canterbury’s chances came from short corners, one of which Matt King deflected wide with jedi-esque reactions to the amazement of both benches. Another short corner, saved well by the MHC keeper unfortunately fell kindly to the striker who flicked the follow up past onrushing Al’s head. 2-1 with a while to go yet.

The game was put to bed quite late into the second half, a pass from Ian to Ash and a reverse shot into the bottom corner all but secured the win as Maidstone led 3-1. A final nice piece of open play from Maidstone resulted in a top-D shot from Waller which ricocheted off Ash’s shinpad, smashing it completely and rolling into the goal, unsurprisingly given as a Canterbury 16.

The game itself was a relatively friendly one, the umpires whistle blew and Maidstone recorded another win on the board. They play league leaders Sevenoaks at home (2:30pm) next week, where a win would pole vault them to 2nd place (depending on other results).