Maidstone United 1 Canvey Island 1

Match 57/13/1084 - Saturday, 8th February 2014 - Ryman Premier

Maidstone United (0) 1 Collin 82 (pen)
Canvey Island (0) 1 Curran 49
Att. 1,794

Entrance: £7 Senior
Programme: £2
Mileage: 23/5,776

Match Report

If there were any Conference officials among the near-1,800 crowd they would not have lost the inference made when the stadium announcer proclaimed that on a day that 92 games in senior non-league football had been postponed, the Gallagher was able to bring football to the paying public. With every sodden Saturday that brings mass postponements, Maidstone United's hand is strengthened in their quest to have the ruling that their 3G pitch is unacceptable for Conference football overturned.

Overall, I have mixed feelings on the debate. There can be little doubt that the pitch itself should not be a problem. The Gallagher, despite my dislike for Maidstone United, has been a turn-to ground when virtually nothing else in Kent is available. On this day the only other football in the county being played was at Folkestone, unless Thamesmead is considered in Kent. The only thing that I don't like about the pitch is the very point of the argument, it plays exactly the same whether it is August or February, whether the weather is burning hot or freezing cold, bucketing down with rain or dry as a bone. Surely this leads to an almost sanitised game of football that isn't affected by the thrills and spills of a pitch that offers the under-dog the opportunity of levelling the playing field against superior opposition. With almost every club from the Premier League down to the county leagues doing an element of their training on plastic surfaces, you would be left to wonder whether the FA Cup glory days of Hereford, Colchester and even Burscough's win against Gillingham, would ever happen again without the aid of a mud-bath.

Where I side 100% with the Conference officials is the way in which Maidstone's board feel they can railroad their way to overturning the decision. There is something in the DNA of this club, since the days of Jim Thompson, that they feel that the rule book doesn't apply to them. If Gallagher's had built houses on the land on which they built the stadium they would have had to apply for, and adhere to, planning permissions. If they had failed to comply with the conditions then the local planners would have every right to come along and tell the builders to demolish the houses. Maidstone United knew the rules when they laid the pitch, but they showed the arrogance that they have shown in the past, to believe that when push came to shove, it would be them that would be pushing and shoving the League officials. At this present time, they are wrong, the Conference have said no, but that, it seems doesn't stop the Maidstone train and legal proceedings are being threatened.

As it happens, the pitch itself is offering Maidstone very little advantage. Although they remain unbeaten on the plastic, they have now drawn nine out of their 17 home league games and Canvey Island, like Hendon when I saw them a month ago, were good value for their point and could quite easily have taken all three.

The big advantage they are obtaining is the income that is being generated by the use of the 3G, 7-days a week, and the vast crowds that are turning up at the Gallagher. This income can be put to good use on the pitch and the arrival of Luke Rooney is testament to the spending power the club has. The ex-Gillingham enfant-terrible has arrived at Maidstone after his contract at Swindon had been terminated. After having his ego stoked by Paolo Di Canio prior to his arrival at the County Ground, his career has been in reverse ever since. After failing to make an impact at Swindon, he was loaned out to Burton Albion, Rotherham United and Crawley Town before his Swindon departure. At this time, he has "fallen out of love with football" footballer's speak for ...

Obviously far from full fitness, he was eventually substituted on 72 minutes, having made a good impression for the first 45 minutes. His touch was good, he was as energetic as in his teenage days at Priestfield, but perhaps he needs to get atuned to the 3G surface as his final pass was often over-hit.

An even, if unexciting first half, had seen a couple of reasonable chances for both sides go begging before Canvey opened the scoring early in the second period. A left-sided corner was met with a firm header from Jay Curran, leaving Lee Worgan no chance. Maidstone went after an equaliser, going close with efforts from Tom Mills and Jerome Sobers, but were being picked off on the break by Canvey, who wasted a couple of opportunities to put the game to bed.

The game turned in a 30 second period, eight minutes from time. At one end, John Sands hit a post for Canvey before, in the counter-attack, Zak Attwood was brought down by Scott Chalmers-Stevens as the Maidstone striker bore down on goal to produce a penalty. Frannie Collin stepped up, and all Tonbridge fans know there is only one conclusion, he doesn't miss.

Canvey had Michael Alaile sent off for a second yellow card and with a man advantage the home side threw caution to the wind in search of a winner, but the visitors held firm, with the aid of a bit of time-wasting, for a well-deserved point.

Maidstone are not nailed-on promotion winners with another five clubs in the chasing pack, and it might be their inability to win home games such as this one that costs them their place in Conference South rather than any off-field decision by the league officials.