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The return of Matt York from his little
holiday at Carshalton signalled the start of the sweeper
experiment. After an afternoon when the Terrors managed only
one serious attempt on 'gorgeous' Andy Walkers goal it would
be fair to say that it's very much a work in progress. Winter
arrived with a vengeance at the B&Q depot that 'stones
call home as sweeping rain had the crowd crammed under the few
covered areas. However, even that was not enough to
generate an atmosphere at this most loathed of venues. Dean
Hamlin was serving a one match suspension, so Colin Hartburn
took on his right sided duties and it was he who took the
second minute free kick that was met by Aaron Goode, earning a
corner. Stuart Myall barely had a chance to get into the game
before Aaron Lacey cynically took him out from behind leading
to his substitution several minutes later by debutant Callum
Crawley. Several minutes later Alan McLeod returned the favour
and also saw yellow. Before that though, Jason Pinnock
scampered down the right, beating several defenders and cut the ball back from the by-line. Unfortunately a
Maidstone man was first to meet it and did so with sufficient
force to set up a route one counter attack which was
ruthlessly completed with a low shot by the ever dangerous
James Pinnock. As in the early season cup tie
the home team once again took a firm grip on proceedings,
narrowly missing out on a second goal as Dave King and Joe
Vines played a dangerous series of one twos before handing
over possesion for a shot that sailed just over the back
tracking keeper and, fortunately, also over the bar. For
the rest of the half Jay Saunders enjoyed himself, running
operations in the middle of the park with enthusiastic
support, notably from Lacy and Pinnock. The few Tooting
forays foundered through lack of forward support and the
aerial dominance of Ian Cox.
Half Time
0 -
1
Five minutes after the restart Ian Selley
sliced open the right side of the Tooting defence before
cutting inside and unleashing a fine shot that King did well
to tip over. On eleven minutes Paul Vines hit the post, but
was ruled offside. Two minutes later he hit the same
upright, this time legally, latching onto a long through ball
in the box and twisted past a defender. However, Walker
was able to do enough to unbalance him and take the sting out
of the shot. This was Tootings best period, but there
was no penetration and Walker was only troubled once more,
saving a Ben Abbey back header from a Hartburn cross.
Deep into injury time 'stones broke again.
This time the Tooting defence could not cope and conceded a
penalty (some say questionably - I was too far away) which was duly converted by Selly.
Overall, a robust game in which we posed no
serious threat to a strong and well orgainsed Maidstone side .
Special mention to the officials who, shall we just say, had a
collective off day!
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