Hendon 3-0 Maidstone United - We lacked desire and we let everyone down, fumes Nott

Monday 19th April 2010

HENDON 3-0 MAIDSTONE UNITED
Ryman Premier League
Monday 19th April 2010
Stephen McCartney reports from Vale Farm

MAIDSTONE UNITED boss Peter Nott described his side’s performance as “embarrassing” as three second half goals left the Kent side in a precarious position just one place above the relegation zone with only two games left to save their bacon.

The Stones would have relegated Margate with at least a point at Wembley’s Vale Farm tonight, but goals from Jamie Busby, Peter Dean and James Burgess ensures the relegation dog-fight at the foot of the Ryman Premier League will go down to the last five days of the season.

Nott walked down the steps from the dressing rooms and told www.kentishfootball.co.uk exactly what he thought of his side’s display tonight.

“Embarrassing!” he fumed. “I don’t think we played particularly well in the first half but we probably showed enough effort to keep ourselves in the game.

“Poor decision making has cost us the first goal and then heads completely went. What we’re struggling with at the moment is any team that have got any movement we can’t cope.

“We’ve got people who are following the ball, chasing the ball. We played the game for 90 minutes and we’ve not talked, we’ve not communicated or passed on basic information and in the end we’ve been stuffed and we were never in the game all night!”

The Stones were without Roland Edge (hamstring) for this game, but their injury list worsened when midfielder Mark Corneille (turned ankle) and striker Adrian Stone (cut above his eye following an elbow) went off injured during the first half.

Despite creating a couple of half decent chances in the first half, Maidstone United’s fire-power was lacking during a poor second half performance all round, as the front two of Danny Hockton and Lyndon Rowland just went through the motions.

In what was a tight opening twenty minutes, Hendon created the game’s first chance when Scott Cousins’ corner from the right was met by a bullet header from the unmarked Dean, which was powered over the Maidstone United crossbar.

Maidstone United striker Hockton squandered a couple of goalscoring chances with his head.

Right-back, Nathan Paul, joined an attack and whipped in a cross, which was met by a jumping Hockton, but his header lacked power and looped into James Reading’s grateful arms.

And then he met a corner from the right from Antonio Gonnella, which he headed down and the ball bounced out for a Hendon goal-kick.

Maidstone United’s best chance of the first half arrived on the half-hour mark as Gonnella’s free-kick found its way to James Peacock inside the penalty area and his drilled shot was blocked by a defender and substitute Errison Awhan attempted to curl the ball into the far corner, but this lacked any power and allowed the Hendon keeper to make a comfortable save.

Cousins almost left Andy Walker as red as his shirt when he saw the former Billericay Town keeper off his line and his left-footed free-kick from 45-yards only just sailed over with the keeper in trouble.

But Walker denied Bulgarian Lubomir Guentchev a certain goal as he tried to lob the ball over the advancing keeper.

Gonnella showed glimpses of magic and just before the break his trickery left attacking right-back Danny Dyer behind as he cut along the by-line but his low centre was flicked into the keeper’s hands by Awhan.

Although the first half was promising, the second half was downright depressing, as Hendon dominated throughout and played some lovely football.

Cousins’ diagonal pass found Lee O’Leary completely unmarked at the far post inside the Maidstone United penalty area, but thankfully he struck a right-footed volley which ballooned over Walker’s crossbar.

Hendon left-back, Craig Vargas then joined in the fun and he was not far from beating Walker at his near post from a left-footed drive on the run from 30-yards.

Hendon deservedly opened the scoring after 64 minutes when a two-man slick move down the right resulted in Busby smashing a right-footed shot past the exposed Walker.

Another cross from Cousins was met by an ambitious overhead kick from Guentchev from the edge of the Maidstone penalty area, which bounced past the far post.

Rampant Hendon doubled their lead after 69 minutes when the impressive Dyer picked the ball up and his cut-back from the right by-line was smashed home at the far post by Dean.

Sorry Maidstone created just one chance during the second half - and had substitute Awhan taken it then it might have made the journey to Wembley more enjoyable.

Gonnella delivered a deep cross towards the far post which was knocked down by Paul and the ball rolled out to Awhan who skied the ball over the crossbar.

Hendon wrapped up a comfortable win in the final four minutes when a corner from the left by substitute Dave Diedhiou was cut back to Dyer in acres of space and his driven cross was met by a scooping header at the far post by Burgess, who celebrated with the Hendon supporters behind the goal, escaping a yellow card from a referee who witnessed challenges from both sides but decided to keep his cards in his pocket.

But what angered Nott the most was the lack of desire and passion from his side in a game that they had to get something from.

“The biggest problem we’ve had they’re not even a big team but they showed the desire,” said Nott.

“They won 80% of the aerial battles and it looked tonight that we were the team that had nothing to play for and they were scrapping for their lives.

“We’ve had two good results. We should be on a high and we’ve come here and not competed again.”

The Maidstone camp will take an interest in the bottom-of-the-table clash between Waltham Abbey and Bognor Regis Town on Tuesday night - with Nott wanting already relegated Waltham Abbey to claim three points - before Bognor Regis arrive at Homelands on Thursday night.

“We can’t rely on other results. It’s still in our hands,” he said. “We can only concentrate on the games we’re involved in and that’s Thursday night.

“We have to turn up on the night, hopefully we’ll have Roland Edge back and we’ll have to see the other injuries that we’ve got and we have to turn up with a completely difficult frame of mind and put right what we done wrong tonight.”

Nott demands his side put their bodies on the line in a MUST-WIN game against Bognor Regis.

“We’ve got to die for the cause,” he told his players. “I thought too many of them lost their individual battles all the way around. I thought we were completely and utterly overran in every area.

“As soon as Adrian Stone went off we looked so static up front, never looked like we were going to score.

“I’m critical of the work-rate of the boys up front as well. Not only did we not create anything, we were letting the (Hendon) back four come out at will.

“I don’t care what position they play, we defend from the front and you pick up your just rewards after that but we didn’t! We were awful up front today!”

With four points needed from Bognor Regis and a trip to play-off chasing Kingstonian on the final day off the season on Saturday, survival can be achieved if players are up for it.

“We can definitely get out of it!” Nott added. “The fans that came down tonight, the players have let them down, they’ve let the club down and they owe them to come out and really give us a performance to win us three points!”

Hendon: James Reading, Danny Dyer, Craig Vargas, Bradley Thomas, James Burgess, Kevin MacLaren (Stephen Cunningham 82), Lubomir Guentchev (Florin Pelecaci 71), Lee O’Leary, Jamie Busby, Peter Dean, Scott Cousins (Dave Diedhiou 76).
Subs: Gianni Marotta, Casey MacLaren.

Goals: Jamie Busby 64, Peter Dean 69, James Burgess 86

Maidstone United: Andy Walker, Nathan Paul, Jermaine Darlington, James Peacock, Peter Hawkins, Ant Bodle, Mark Corneille (Errison Awhan 19), Chris Saunders, Adrian Stone (Lyndon Rowland 44), Danny Hockton, Antonio Gonnella (Ashley Ulph 74).
Subs: Tom Parkinson, Adam Harris

Attendance: 171
Referee: Mr Tony Power (Harrow, Middlesex)
Assistants: Mr Aiden Farrelly (Hampton, Middlesex) & Mr Mark Sarah (Paddington, London W9)