We've just got to put another run together, says Maidstone United boss Jay Saunders

MAIDSTONE UNITED boss Jay Saunders says he wants his side to bounce back when they travel to Wealdstone on Saturday.

Maidstone United suffered only their second league defeat of the season, going down to a 2-0 defeat at Dulwich Hamlet last night.

The Stones slipped down one place into fifth in the Ryman Premier League with 42 points from 20 games – five points adrift of league leaders AFC Hornchurch.

Saunders rued his side’s numerous goalscoring chances but they failed to take any of them – but two quality goals from wingers Nyren Clunis and Jerome Walker helped The Hamlet leapfrog over them in the table.

“Gavin Rose has got a good side here with Junior (Kadi), they’re good lads and they’ve got a good side,” said Saunders.

“I don’t think we’ve come here and disgraced ourselves. Teams will come here and not create as many chances as we have, so we’ve had a go.

“We’ve just got to put another run together. We did it last year. We lost a couple of games and everyone started panicking.

“Don’t get me wrong, we wanted to keep the unbeaten run going, but it’s important that we do what we did when we lost to Margate in the sixth game of the season and we’ve just got to do that again and if we do that then we’ll be ok.”

Looking ahead to their trip to second-placed Wealdstone on Saturday, Saunders expects another stern test against another of their promotion rivals.

The Kent based Stones have had the better of the Middlesex based Stones in the three previous encounters between the two clubs this season.

Maidstone United were held to a 1-1 draw at home on the opening day of the season and defeated Wealdstone 1-0 at home in The FA Carlsberg Trophy Second Qualifying Round Replay, after coming away from Ruislip with a 1-1 draw in November.

Saunders said: “They’re a good side in the league and that’s no disrespect to Gavin or any other side we’ve played but Wealdstone are the best side we’ve played.

“But then if you can’t get up for that after a defeat then you can’t get up for a lot so we’ve got to make sure we prepare right now and try and get a couple of bodies back and go there and try and put on a performance.”

Saunders, who was without Jerrome Sobers, Steve Watt, Michael Phillips, Orlando Smith and Richard Davies through injury last night, admits his side have struggled without strength-in-depth.

Saunders has snapped up Jack Parkinson, 24, from Skrill (Conference) Premier side Woking on a two-and-a-half year contract having signed the versatile player as a player-coach for an undisclosed fee yesterday.

Parkinson is currently the Academy coach at Maidstone United and Saunders admitted he threw him in too early.

“That’s why we got Jack in because we’re missing Steve Watts, who is going to be a month or maybe a bit more and Jerome Sobers – we’ve just been told could be two or three weeks. I just think we couldn’t afford to be playing Tom Mills at centre half so it was important to get Jack in.

“We’ve got a lot of games coming up so we’ve got to re-group, try and get as many points as we can and the quicker you can get another win under your belts the better.”

When asked about his Christmas list going into the New Year, Saunders replied: “Stay injury free!  That’s how I feel at the moment. I’m not making excuses.  I can’t get a choice of a full eleven.”

When asked whether he feels his side would be higher in the table if the club wasn’t suffering an injury crisis at present, Saunders replied:” That’s hard to say! It’ll certainly help. Maybe a few games that we’ve drawn if I had a couple more of those players would we have a few more points on the board then I’ll probably say yes, but it’s the way it is and we’ve got to get on with it.

“I’m not going to make excuses. We are where we are. We’ve got injuries and we’ve got to get on with it but hopefully it will end soon.”

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

Wealdstone  v  Maidstone United
Ryman Premier League
Saturday 21^st December 2013
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Grosvenor Vale, Ruislip, Middlesex HA4 6JQ