Tonbridge Angels (1) 1 Vincent 45
Maidstone United (1) 3 Fowler 2 Blair 78 Bentley 90+5
Attendance: 2,825
Admission: Season Ticket
Mileage: 38/4,097
Maidstone United returned home from the A26, three points safely tucked in their back pocket after a deserved, if slightly flattering, 3-1 win.
Historically, Tonbridge Angels have never won a home encounter with their local rivals on Boxing Day and when they went behind with less than two minutes on the clock that statistic looked unlikely to be put to bed. A Liam Vincent header just before the break offered hope but two late goals sent the visiting contingent home happy.
Jay Saunders said after the game: “Give Maidstone their credit, they’ve taken their goals well. The first goal kills us to a degree, an embarrassing goal. Long throw, bounces about and they poke it in and so it is probably the worst start possible. We grew into the game and got better as the half wore on and deservedly got on level terms and there wasn’t a lot in the game all afternoon. Santos gives the ball away in a silly area, they break and to be fair to Blair, it’s a great finish.”
The Halcyon Wealth Longmead Stadium was packed with a record league attendance of 2,825 on a grey, if thankfully mild, day. Jay remained without the services of Sean Shields and made one change from the side that started at Boreham Wood with Jeremy Santos coming in for Mo Dabre (ankle injury).
The Angels found themselves under pressure from the opening whistle and barely survived the opening low throw into the box before a cross from Matt Rush was headed on to the far post from where George Fowler only needed the faintest of touches to steer it home.
A difficult opening period was nearly compounded after six minutes when Rush failed to get on the end of a Antony Papadopoulos cross before the home side began to get anything like a foothold in the game.
After 19 minutes, Vincent managed to get in his first threatening cross of the game which narrowly evaded Harry Ottaway. Another Vincent cross saw pressure on the Maidstone goalkeeper, Alexis Andre Jr, but a charitable referee quickly came to his aid.
Maidstone’s leading goalscorer, Aaron Blair, was understandably causing the Angels back line more than a few concerns and when he wriggled clear of Ethan Sutcliffe, the outcome might have been a whole lot worse than a shot that was comfortably saved by Matt Rowley.
Boxing Day’s pantomime villain, ex-Angel Jordan Higgs, raised a cheer from the home support as he entered the referee’s notebook before those supporters were given a genuine reason to be cheerful as the Angels found an equaliser. Sutcliffe’s cross from the right, was headed towards the byeline but was kept alive by Trevan Robinson’s back header and as the bounce deceived a Maidstone defender, Vincent stole in to plant a header beyond Andre Jr.
The Angels received a huge setback, just moments into the second period, when Vincent went down following a challenge and needed to be replaced by Charlie Pegrum.
A sensational clearance from Ronnie Nelson from the line after Sol Wanjau-Smith had got on the end of a cross preserved his side’s parity as the visitors began to turn up the heat.
With 12 minutes remaining, a game to be honest that had not been blessed with quality, found its moment and with it the visitors regained their lead. A ball lost by the Angels in midfield, was swept to the left from where Blair, stepped inside to curl a shot from 25 yards into the top corner beyond the grasp of Rowley.
A flutter of excitement rippled through the home end as Pegrum’s cross evaded a couple of onrushing Angels and drifted narrowly wide of the far post.
But, in the fifth of seven added minutes, Maidstone iced their cake when Blair laid the ball off to Matt Bentley who picked his spot into the bottom corner.
Jay summed up: “There are things we’ve got to be better on. It’s annoying because I felt we could have come out of the game with something, but we’ve not and the two goals play a big part in it. We lost the game because at key moments were were not good enough. For large parts of it, it was a typical derby, it was a battle with tackles flying in, but you are always going to be up against it if you concede three goals.”
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