We have a massive chance of knocking out Histon, says Hume

Sunday 03rd January 2010

MAIDSTONE UNITED joint-manager Lloyd Hume says his side has a great chance to send higher league side Histon crashing out of a much-delayed FA Carlsberg Trophy tie on Tuesday night, writes Stephen McCartney.

Histon are presently in eleventh place in the Blue Square Premier table with 34 points from 24 games and will hope to get this tie underway at the third attempt as the playing surface at Homelands Stadium is causing problems.

The Stones, meanwhile, have been inconsistent this season, although Hume’s men have climbed up to seventh place in the Ryman Premier League table, with 29 points from 21 games and confidence is certainly high after claiming six points from their three festive games.

“We need Tuesday’s game to go ahead,” Hume told www.kentishfootball.co.uk following his side’s 1-0 win at Margate at the weekend.

“I think we’ve got six games through January to our form at home will be important.

“I’ve been told that the game at Homelands was off today, so hopefully the pitch will be better for it, but we desperately want to play Histon and hopefully progress to the next round to play Salisbury.

“What we don’t want is for games to be called off so there is a backlog there as well.

“We fancy our chances against Histon, as they will against us, but Tuesday night is a hard night for them to come down to us, so we‘ll go into the game with a lot of confidence.

“It‘s a massive game for us, a massive chance for us.”

Hume, meanwhile, pointed out that the Stones are one of ten teams that perform better on the road in Ryman Premier League games this season.

He said: “If you look at the stats tables, the majority of wins in our league are away from home. I don’t know why that is because you’ve got to fancy yourself at home.

“Our home form hasn’t been as good as our away form, but we enjoy playing down at Homelands.

“There’s no reason for it, but we haven’t played our best down there, so when we go away, we do fancy ourselves.

“We get more financial benefit from playing at Homelands, which is no disrespect to (former landlords) Sittingbourne, but that is just the way things are.

“Up until now, the pitch at Homelands has probably been better, but we felt the game against Canvey Island would ruin the pitch and that’s exactly what happened.

“The groundsman is working really hard and when we went there Boxing Day I didn’t think that the game would be on for one minute, but it was more than playable.”

Visit Maidstone United’s website: www.maidstoneunited.co.uk

Maidstone United v Histon

FA Carlsberg Trophy First Round

Tuesday 5th January 2010

Kick Off 3:00pm

At Homelands Stadium, Ashford Road, Kingsnorth, Ashford, Kent TN26 1NJ