Weston-Super-Mare will be glad they don’t have to play against Vas Karagiannis again this season as the Maidstone winger added two goals and an assist to his match winning penalty on Tuesday night to ease the Stones to a 3-1 win.
Karagiannis made it two penalties in a little over 8 minutes of football by opening the scoring on 4 minutes (following the 90th minute winner in the previous match), and added his second six minuted before the break with a sublime freekick after Scott Wilson had levelled on 24 with Weston’s only clear chance of the half.
Maidstone extended their advantage in the second half when Dumebi Dumaka met Karagiannis’ swinging freekick from the left with a glancing header to seal the game, and other than a brief flurry of shots off target in the closing moments, Weston-Super-Mare had little answer.
Jay Saunders, this week celebrating five years in charge of Maidstone, said that he brought Karagiannis in from Leatherhead “as he would score goals. It’s not happening for him from open play at the moment, but he’s confident from set plays, he’s got quality from them, and his goal and assist ratio has been very good. I still think we’ve got more to come from him.”
“I think the keeper has pulled off a couple of good saves, but my only real disappointment is that we could have scored a few more. Bar the ten-minute spell when they scored, I thought we dominated. On Tuesday night, we had the long journey, we were a bit more defensive, so I said that we had to be more positive and take the game to them. First half we did for the majority, but second half, we controlled it with good tempo and it could have been a few more.”
“Their goal has come from nothing and Worgs (Lee Worgan) has had nothing to do. It’s one of them that every club at this level has someone who can punish you if you make a mistake. Once again we’ve got a very young side out there (other than Worgan and Joe Healy) and I think they’ve done well. We’ve had one defeat in eleven now, on a good run, and it we can get near that second half performance, we’ve just got to keep going.”
Maidstone started the game on the front foot and were awarded a penalty when a quick 3-man interchange saw Jack Paxman release Alex Flisher into the Weston area. As visiting keeper Luke Purnell advanced, Flisher got to the ball first and was brought down. For the second time in a week, Vas Karagiannis stepped up to send the keeper the wrong way and convert from 12 yards.
Maidstone’s high pressing game in the opening 20 minutes was causing Weston-Super-Mare real problems and the visitors were struggling to get the ball upfield. Dumebi Dumaka somehow found space to fire a shot at Purnell, and Flisher ghosted in onto a Joe Healy cross to beat Purnell with a header, which drifted over the bar.
Karagiannis had another chance on 18 with a freekick that he curled over the wall and over the bar, and it looked to be one-way traffic until Weston found an equaliser on 24. A quick break from a Maidstone corner, with a number of home players committed upfield, saw Callum Driver’s attempted clearance land on the right wing for Tristan Plummer to drive a ball across. There was a deflection off Dayle Grubb into the path of Scott Wilson, who swept a composed finish past the wrong-footed Lee Worgan into the bottom right corner.
The game went into a scrappy phase for 15 minutes, although Karagiannis was always teasing down the right flank. One run inside Jake Llewellyn, who would later be cautioned for a crude foul on the winger, saw Karagiannis dart across the face of the area, where the experienced Clayton Fortune clipped the winger’s ankles. Karagiannis himself took responsibility for the freekick; curling a delightful shot in off the left hand post to restore the lead.
Joe Healy managed to find space in the area for a diving header, but was too close to the ground to make a proper contact, but Maidstone really took control of the game from the restart, and will wonder how they didn’t score more than one.
Dumaka had two early opportunities, sweeping a shot across goal and wide, then drawing a save from Purnell by the left post, after the referee had played two advantages following fouls on Maidstone players. The forward finally scored his third goal in an amber shirt on 53, following his move from Grays, finding time and space in the area to glance Karagiannis’ freekick into the corner of the net.
Karagiannis, searching for his hatrick, attempted an ambitious curling shot from the corner of the area that Purnell had to tip over at full stretch, and Dumaka lashed in a shot that took Purnell off his feet as he tried to parry the shot away as the game became virtually one-way traffic towards the Town End.
It looked as though a stoppage for treatment to Mr Pollard, the referee, might disrupt the momentum, but seconds after he restarted the game, Karagiannis curled another shot across goal and wide. The winger had a better chance saved by Purnell with 10 minutes remaining, and neither Flisher nor Bobby-Joe Taylor could find a way to target from the follow-up chances.
Weston-Super-Mare finally saw the white posts of the Maidstone goal in stoppage time, as Worgan couldn’t reach Grubb’s cross from the left due to a challenge from Wilson, and the ball dropped to the visiting forward, whose shot on the turn could only find the side netting.
After a tough week, Maidstone consolidate second place in the National South table, and are closing in on a guaranteed playoff place.
MAIDSTONE UNITED: Lee Worgan, Callum Driver, Tom Mills, Callum Davies, Manny Parry, Jack Paxman (Bobby-Joe Taylor 79), Vas Karagiannis, Joe Healy, Dumebi Dumaka (Jay May 85), Dan Sweeney, Alex Flisher (Alex Akrofi 85).
Subs not used: James Rogers, Adam Birchall.
Goals: Vas Karagiannis 4 (pen) & 39, Dumebi Dumaka 53.
Caution: Joe Healy 33.
WESTON-SUPER-MARE: Luke Purnell, Sekani Simpson (Jason Pope 74), Jake Llewellyn, Kane Ingram, Pat Keary, Clayton Fortune, Tristan Plummer (Ioannis Varouxakis 59), Jacob Kane, Scott Wilson, Dayle Grubb, Danny Wring (Ben Withey 64).
Subs not used: Jamie Edge.
Goal: Scott Wilson 24.
Caution: Jake Llewellyn 45.
Attendance: 2,143
Referee: Mr Chris Pollard
Assistants: Mr Paul Quick and Mr Darren Stobbart