Maidstone United 5-0 Dulwich Hamlet - I'm so happy we performed for an amazing crowd, says Saunders

MAIDSTONE UNITED  5-0  DULWICH HAMLET
Ryman League Division One South
Saturday 13^th October 2012
Mike Green reports from James Whatman Way

It really was Maidstone United's day!

On a day when the gate at the Gallagher Stadium was only 58 short of the combined attendances for the other ten games in the division (and incidentally nearly a third as many again as the combined figure in the North), Jay Saunders side fully deserved to reap the rewards of this five star display on the banks of the River Medway.

But in one of the strangest first half's of the season (which was delayed by ten minutes so that the near 2,000 crowd could all get into the ground) in which the Stones raced into a two goal lead inside the opening ten minutes and yet could, should and on perhaps another day would have been behind by half time as Dulwich missed two glaring chances and saw Junior Kadi's 36th minute penalty brilliantly turned aside by Charlie Mitten.

But two more home goals in the opening 210 seconds of the second period calmed any nerves that Saunders may have had and meant that the icing was well and truly in place, before the cherry was most certainly put on the top of the cake when the two goal heroes Alex Flisher and Shaun Welford combined brilliantly as skipper Welford gloriously swept home Flishers pin point deep cross midway through the half.

A very happy Saunders was naturally pleased with his sides overall performance. "I thought we were superb today," he said. "I've just told the boys that - we've had a couple of disappointing results. I knew that the Hythe game would be tough, after going out against East Thurrock in the Cup last week, we could have come here today and gone into our shell. But we didn't - we turned up well and truly today and done a job, so yeah I'm very pleased!

“We gave them a couple of chances in the first half which wasn't really surprising as we changed the back four. Graeme (Andrews) hasn’t played for a few weeks and he’s come in and looked a little but rusty alongside Nick Humphrey, but I'm not just pointing the finger at him!

“Millsy (Tom Mills) only yesterday in his sick bed so it was touch and go whether we went with him, but we did and he scored a great goal to boot!

“Yes, I did think at time that we were sloppy at times in the first half - we were nowhere near perfect, I'll be the first to admit that, but we showed character today and threw our bodies on the line when we had to, but hey - I can’t argue at 5-0 can I," questioned the Stones boss, and how right he was.

As they kicked off ten minutes after the game should have started - the game was delayed as the crowd poured into the Gallagher Stadium - the Stones could only have dreamed of their start as first Humphrey's defensive header from half way somehow found its way through to Flisher on the edge of the box who drew keeper James Tedder before drilling the ball into the far corner after less than three minutes play.

But such was the almost bizarre sense of the opening half, Dulwich should really have been in front before Flisher found the net for the fifth time this season.

Ex Stone Ellis Green burst into the box, and rounded Mitten but was forced wide. He did well and pulled the ball back for Kadi who couldn't direct the shot properly and fired wide.

The home lead was doubled on nine minutes when skipper Welford muscled through to clip the ball past a hopelessly exposed Tedder for his sixth of the season already - the ball had been clipped through the centre circle in Welford's direction, and the Stones number nine turned the Dulwich defender superbly before racing clear to score, leaving his manager happy yet wary about the start - wary because the same thing happened in the corresponding fixture last season.

Saunders recalled: "When we played them last year at home we went 2-0 up early doors then (the game finished in a 2-2 draw that day). But today I thought that if we got at them with the right delivery we'd cause some problems. the thing was that you can sometimes go head too early leading to a tendency to sit back as you tend to think that "hey we're comfortable now", and that’s what I think happened if I'm honest as we let them back into the game in the first half."

Yet the visitors spurned two glorious clear cut chances to get back into the game. On 16 minutes, Green again left Mills floundering down the right, and as he had done for the Stones last season, delivered a magnificent cross that the flying figure of Nyren Clunis could have only missed by centimetres as the ball flashed across the face of goal.

The visitors then had squandered a golden opportunity to get back into the game before half time. On 36 minutes, Clunis burst into the box only for Andrews to stick out an ill-timed leg sending the Dulwich forward sprawling giving referee Maskell no option but to point to the spot.

As Kadi placed the ball on the spot, Stones top scorer Paul Booth signalled to Mitten exactly where he felt that Kadi would send the ball, and his former Lewes team mate was proved right, as Mitten plunged away to his right to palm aside the spot kick.

Coming when it did - just nine minutes from the break - it would have given the visitors a foot hold back in the game, a point that wasn't lost of the Stones boss.

"I told the boys at half time that the next goal would be crucial, but I didn't see it coming as quickly as it did,” said Saunders.

“We were literally in dreamland and they were all good goals today, but I must give Charlie a mention first half for a great penalty save because if we'd have gone in at only 2-1 it would have been a different game as without doubt them scoring the third goal of the game would have given them the confidence to go on with the belief.

“No complaints about the penalty either as again I thought we were a bit rusty there. We got to him a bit late, but if the lad gets past them and has the shot and scores then fair play to the fella, but I thought that we let him through a bit too easily. But Boothy used his Lewes knowledge telling Charlie which way, but I'm not taking anything away from Charlie as it was one hell of a save.

“But if you can hold out at the start of the second half and not concede I was sure that we would have caused them problems again. But we obviously had no idea just what a start to the second half we would have."

Less than a minute had ticked by on Mr Maskell's watch when Mills was fed in down the left and the overlapping full back fired in a drive that flew past Tedder and nestled in the bottom corner.

If that wasn't bad enough for the visitors, then worse was to follow just two minutes later, when Flisher was able to take advantage of a shocking defensive mistake by Kalvin Morath-Gibbs to net his second of the game - his sixth of the season.

The Dulwich defender completely misjudged the bounce of a long diagonal ball, allowing Flisher to sprint clear before thumping the ball beyond the despairing dive of the luckless Tedder.

Only four minutes into the second half and Dulwich were now a well beaten side with manager Gavin Rose's half time team talk all but a very distant memory.

It was nearly five shortly before the hour mark when Ben Davissson curled in a free kick that Tedder juggled before clinging onto, but the giant keeper couldn't keep out the goal of the game that really was the cherry on the Stones five star performance.

Young Kayne Woolery did well holding off two challenges before sweeping the ball to the left wing, where Flisher held off Gibbs' half-hearted challenge before curling over the perfect cross that was pacy and swung away from Tedder straight onto Welford's right boot who gleefully accepted his seventh of the season, to cap a true five star performance from the Stones!

The Stones boss was full of praise for Flisher and for the growing partnership that he has with Mills down the Maidstone left.

"With Flish to be honest we've been speaking to him and we worked with him in training on Thursday about his crosses but I thought him and Millsy were terrific down the left flank today, but still if you can play that final ball it’s the difference between being a good player and a great player, and if you can get the delivery right, I don’t think that there’s no one at this level and perhaps the division above that can live with him," Saunders said.

"He’s got pace; he’s got power and he just needs to get that final ball right and we saw today that he’s more than capable of getting them in but we're just looking for more consistency. We knew that by playing Tom at centre half as we have had to do in the past few weeks we'd lose that great partnership down the left. But with Graeme injured we knew that we were going through a bad patch defensively, so we put Millsy in at centre back because he is superb there - he can play in either position on the back line down the left - you do miss that going forward and we knew that but at the time we weren’t defending well enough and he came in and he shored us up.

“I think that's one defeat in ten now and so it shows that he can do a job if needed".

"The crowd were just amazing, and I'm so, so happy that we were able to put on a performance for them, as after being away for five weeks I don’t think we gave the crowd the performance they deserved on Tuesday night. So we asked the lads to give the fans a performance today and they certainly did. Hopefully that showing will keep them coming.”

Next up for the stones is an intriguing Ryman League Cup Second Round tie against former landlords, Sittingbourne, which of course brings Jim Ward face to face with his old club.

Saunders admitted," We'll rest a few who need resting for Tuesday night there are those who have got little niggles and been ill like Millsy so we'll have a look and go from there, but we'll see - we're doing well so we'll mix it about when we need to. Danny Lye who wasn’t involved today will be involved and those who need minutes will get them including me and Michael Phillips, but we'll probably look at going with a similar side to the one that played at Cray a couple of weeks ago in the Kent Cup.”

Maidstone United:  Charlie Mitten, Tommy Osbourne, Tom Mills, Nick Humphrey, Graeme Andrews, Tim Olorunda, Ben Davisson (Ian Draycott 67), Kaiyne Wollery, Shaun Welford (Ade Oloruda 71), Paul Booth (Michael Phillips 55), Alex Flisher.
Subs:  Ryan Cooper, Deren Ibrahim

Goals:  Alex Flisher 3, 49, Shaun Welford 9, 67, Tom Mills 46

Booked: Shaun Welford 59

Dulwich Hamlet:  James Tedder, Kalvin Morath-Gibbs (Callum Martin 78), Kershaney Samuels, Peter Adeniyi, Lewis Gonsalves, Tony Sinclair, Nyren Clunis, Junior Kadi (Richmond Ayoola 60), Ryan James, Luke Hickie, Ellis Green.
Subs:  Erhan Oztumer, Dominic Western, Gavin Rose

Booked: Kalvin Morath-Gibbs 74, Kershaney Samuels 88, Ryan James 90

Attendance: 1,989
Referee:  Mr Garry Maskell (Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex)
Assistants: Mr Mark Scott (Swanscombe) & Mr Rhys Battye (Grays, Essex)