An 80th minute goal from young substitute Gary Smith sealed Maidstone United’s progress into the semi-finals of the Robert Dyas League Cup where they will face up against Chatham Town or Grays Athletic.
In a game of few chances in increasingly blustery conditions at the Gallagher stadium, Maidstone United dominated the game from start to finish, controlling the tempo of the game with neat passing with their diamond midfield.
The games first contentious moment arrived on 21 minutes when a throw in from the right found midfielder Alex Brown breaking free in the area and he was hauled down in the penalty area by centre back Danny Curd which led to the referee pointing to the spot.
Jack Harris stepped up and shot low to the keepers right but the keeper did well to push the effort beyond the post for a corner.
From the resulting Alex Flisher corner, Tom Mills crashed a header against the bar.
Nice passing from Maidstone wasn’t getting any reward and from a rare foray forward, Burgess Hill nearly took the lead on 25 minutes, with the ball making its way through to Pat Harding on the inside left of the area, his left foot shot was deflected and looped its way on to the cross bar before being cleared to safety.
After another flurry of Maidstone corners, it was Burgess Hills turn to miss a penalty, a long ball down the line from right back Spencer Slaughter caused a mix up at the back with goalkeeper Will Godman, who replaced regular goalkeeper Lee Worgan at short notice prior to kick off and Jack Parkinson which led to Burgess Hill striker Greg Luer, stealing in and getting to the ball before being taken down by the keeper.
Godman redeemed himself with a double save to his left to keep out Scott Kirkwood penalty and his resultant follow up.
Into the second half and it was Maidstone who continued to do the majority of the pressing with captain for the evening Frannie Collin have a great opportunity to give the Stones the lead 7 minutes into the second half. Collin released Harris down the right and his pull back found Collin in acres of space 12 yards from goal but Collin’s effort flew high and wide of the goal.
Collin was again to go close on 61 minutes, when his clipped cross took a deflection and bounced off the top of the crossbar before going out for a corner.
It appeared to be one of those days where the prospect of extra time and penalties were on the cards but with just 10 minutes remaining, midfielder Connor Heffernan released Collin on the inside left with just one player to beat, Collin cut in and bent his shot against the post but substitute Gary Smith was following in from the right who took a touch and cooly dispatched beyond the despairing dive of Alan Mansfield in the Burgess Hill goal.
Maidstone progress through to the semi- finals of the competition and could possibly be paired up with a local derby game against Chatham Town who play Grays Athletic on Wednesday evening.
Maidstone United: Godman, Sullivan (Woolery 84), D Parkinson, Brown, Mills, Heffernan, Harris (Smith 72), J Parkinson, Attwood, Collin ©, Flisher
Subs not used: King, Sobers, Swift.
Burgess Hill Town: Mansfield, Slaughter, Fisk, Budd ©, Denyer, Curd, Harding, Kirkwood (Miller 55) Luer, Keehan, Gayler
Subs not used: Watts, Pointing, Tuck, Perry.
Attendance 548