Burnt Ash 4’s 2 - 3 Maidstone 3’s

Maidstone secured a hard-fought 3-2 win over their opponents on Saturday during a crucial clash between 4th (Burnt Ash) and 5th (Maidstone). Tensions flared right from the start and cards were inevitably on the way, but not until Maidstone had got on the scoresheet first…and second.

The first goal came from two precise passes from Matt at RB, through Waller at CAM and up to Ash who slotted it cooly past the left pad of the keeper and into the bottom corner. The second saw Ash return the favour to his captain, leaving Waller an easy open goal to finish, although a bit too close to the right post for comfort.

Maidstone, now 2-0 up after 15 minutes watched as Burnt Ash began to implode, arguing frustratedly between themselves. An unforced error and short corner later, the home team were back in the game against the run of play and the first half drew to a close.

The first two cards of the game came when Burnt Ash’s defender full on rugby tackled Waller to the floor. A green for the foul and a green for the resultant reaction from the Maidstone captain. Both players shook hands, laughed and sat together in the sin bin for 2 minutes. Cute.

Burnt Ash equalised again from another short corner and instantly the heat on the pitch increased, surprisingly no more cards shown to the Burnt Ash players but a green for Dave, Ash and Logan, two yellows for Ash and a further yellow for Waller once back on the pitch. Some deserved, some undeserved…genuinely. 25 minutes worth of sin bins in total is quite a statistic, not one to be particularly proud of though.

With 5 minutes to go, Logan stepped up to take the flick, which pea rolled slowly towards the bottom right. The keeper had already dived, gotten back up, made lunch and ambled over to his left to save. Thankfully, Logan found a burst of energy 2 minutes later and darted into the D onto a pass from Waller to smash into the backboard from a tight angle behind a keeper who had stepped off his line expecting a return pass; Roberto Carlos-esque. Maidstone erupted, 3-2 up with a minute to go. Park the bus. Game over.

Both teams were in agreement the umpires' decisions marred what was a positively competitive fixture overall and despite a number of wrong and controversial calls, the match showcased intense action, calling defenders and keepers into action on multiple occasions.

70 minutes, 8 cards and 5 goals later the visiting team had secured a significant victory against a formidable opponent, Maidstone and Burnt Ash are now joint on points only separated by goal difference.

Maidstone have a bye next weekend and can therefore rest in preparation for another upper-half of the table clash against high flying Newenden Nomads who have lost just once to table toppers Folkestone. Maidstone will hope to better the last result (a 1-1 draw) and climb the table further.