Winning breeds confidence but we're expecting a tough game at East Thurrock, says Jay Saunders

MAIDSTONE UNITED boss Jay Saunders says his side are confident of knocking East Thurrock United out of The FA Cup on Saturday.



The Stones go into the Third Qualifying Round tie on the back of seven successive wins and Saunders is confident of progressing past the Ryman Premier League hosts.

East Thurrock United lie in eleventh-place in the League above, with one win and four-draws from their first six League games.

Maidstone United, meanwhile, sit in eighth-place in the Ryman League Division One South table, with three wins from their first five League games.

The Stones became the first side to beat Margate this season when they came away from Hartsdown Park with a 2-1 win in the FA Carlsberg Trophy First Qualifying Round last weekend.

And the former Margate midfielder said: “We’ve kept our little unbeaten run going, our wins shall I say.”

“I’m pleased with both results (this week). Margate was the more important one.  To go out there and get the win was a massive win for us.

“Obviously being your old club you always want to go back and win and we had a few players who have played down there. I played under Chris Kinnear a long time and I know (assistant manager) Jake Leberl well, so it was nice to go back there and get a win.

“We knew it was going to be hard because they were unbeaten. We went there and put in a good performance and deserved the win.”

The Stones booked their place in the Second Round of the Kent Senior Cup Sponsored by Portablefloodlights.com following their 4-2 win over Ryman Premier Leaguers Cray Wanderers in midweek.

Once again, the fixture came at a bad time for both club’s because they both play important FA Cup ties this weekend and it was no surprise when both manager’s made numerous changes to their line-ups.

“We’ve got a good squad this year and we still had a strong side out,” explained Saunders.

“We gave the ones (Ade Olorunda, Ian Draycott, Danny Lye) who haven’t got the minutes a game and we were able to give some of the young lads a chance in there and they came in.

“The likes of Joe Reeves and Zack Foster-Crouch in goal did really well so that’s another positive really that’s there’s some good youngsters coming through.

“Jim Bodle has two or three pushing (for a place in the first team squad) and we’ve got Jack Parkinson’s under-18 team who have got some good lads coming through so we can give lads’ like that a chance in the Kent Senior Cup.”

Saunders has revealed he has done his homework on East Thurrock United going into Saturday’s winnable FA Cup tie, which is worth £7,500 to the winner.

“We’ve had them watched a couple of times and got a couple of reports on them,” said Saunders.

“We know they’re going to be a hard side. I’m expecting a tough game, tougher than Margate.

“East Thurrock is a tough place to go. They’ve got some good players but we go there full of confidence because we’re on a good run at the moment so we can go there and try and continue doing what we’ve been doing to get some result, so hopefully we can come away with a win.

“I think wins breed confidence and we’ve been defending well as a team and we look better overall. 

“With the new ground there was a lot of expectancy on us and we probably didn’t get going and we didn’t have the best of starts and it affected us confidence wise.

“But then you have a few good wins and you want to go to football. The lads want to get to training and be involved.  With a big squad everyone’s pushing each other, keeping everyone on their toes and you get a few wins and winning becomes a habit and hopefully we can keep that going.”

Maidstone United are only a couple of wins away from reaching The FA Cup First Round – but the Kent club will be banned playing at that stage of the competition because plastic pitches are banned.

Saunders added: “We’ve got a lot of young lads and some lads who have played in the First Round and beyond before, it’s a great competition to be in. We’re the last Ryman South team in it so we go into it as the underdogs.

“Hopefully if we can get through that some of the bigger non-league clubs, the Conference (Premier) clubs come in and if you get a good draw in that you never know, you may end up playing a League club in a couple of games.”

Maidstone United will lock horns with Scott Porter’s Hythe Town side at James Whatman Way next Tuesday if they avoid a draw at the weekend.

Hythe Town were knocked out of The FA Carlsberg Trophy in midweek – going down to a 4-0 home defeat by Ryman Premier League highflyers Hampton & Richmond Borough, after a creditable 1-1 draw at the weekend.

Hythe at present are at the foot of the Ryman League Division One South table, with four points from as many games, but are expected to rise to their real position in the top half of the table once they play catch up.

Saunders said: “They’re only bottom because they’re like us – they haven’t played many games and they’ve got plenty of games in hand and they won’t be down there at the end.  They’ll be challenging.

“Scott’s got a good side there. They work hard for each other. 

“That will be a good one for us.  Hopefully we’ll have a good crowd.  We haven’t played at home for a month – that’s where our priorities like this year. We want to get promoted this year and that’s what we’re pushing to do.

“Hopefully we’ll go into a tough game with Hythe and hopefully get three points.”

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

East Thurrock United  v  Maidstone United
The FA Cup with Budweiser Third Qualifying Round
Saturday 6^th October 2012
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Rookery Hill, Corringham, Essex SS17 9LB