After an emphatic 7-1 win at home last week beating 4th place Canterbury, flying high Maidstone (4 wins in 4) now jumped up 2 places and stood proudly at the top of the Div 5 table following an incredible start to the season. They were now faced with the tough task of upending a strong Gravesham & Wellcome team (3rd place), unbeaten in 5 (4W,1D).

Maidstone took 13 men to the North of Kent on Saturday, however due to injury, the in-form MHC Captain (19 goals in 5 games) could only watch on, dejected from the sidelines. Something the Gravesham team expressed they were ‘glad to see in the nicest way possible’.

For the first time this season, Maidstone found themselves slower out of the blocks than their opposition when the starting whistle sounded. From the beginning Maidstone were defending for their lives; last ditch tackles, reflex saves and a lot of defensive covering from Midfield ensure the match stayed at 0-0 for a good half an hour. Maidstone were fully under the cosh.

After another quick attack, the ball fell kindly to a Gravesham striker who swung and missed, his teammate collected the loose ball gratefully and slipped into the bottom right corner. The cries from the visiting side of ‘swing and a miss’ fell on deaf ears and Maidstone found themselves down going into the break for the first time this season. Andy Willougby (GK and eventual man of the match) single (left) handedly responsible for ensuring the scoreline was only 1-0 to the home side. Special mention has to be given to the pirouette Steve D pulled off to pick an aerial out of the air, his face expressing just as much surprise as his teammates.

Maidstone not down and out yet had to fight hard to reverse the 1-goal deficit. Taking this maybe a little too literally, Logan went into a 50/50 in what can only be described as attempted murder, resulting in a green card. Swiftly followed by an upgraded yellow for telling the umpire where he should put his cards. Can’t fault the passion, just the control of it. With the visitors down to 10, Gravesham capitalised and went 2-0 up with around 15 minutes to go. Maidstone were gaining momentum however; James D and Matt K shut Gravesham players down well and fired a number of accurate passes into the D, any minor deflection would have caused the so far untested keeper some problems.

Al C decided to take it upon himself to maraude into the D, subsequently getting wiped out by the keeper. Al (unscathed) stood up to see the umpire signalling for a short corner, the keeper, unsurprisingly down for a few minutes having collided hard with the 6ft 5 brick wall. The short corner broke down, the ball fell to Ash Messenger who with only minutes to go converted to make it 2-1. Maidstone rushed to get the ball back for the restart and pressed hard again, with just seconds to go Ash fired narrowly wide and the final whistle blew to signal a Gravesham win.

The result sees Maidstone slip back in to 3rd place, they face 4th place Old Wills at home next week (2:30pm). Another crucial must win game for the boys in blue as they fight for promotion.

MOTM – Andy W (GK)
Green Card – Logan
Yellow Card – Logan