Maidstone United manager Jay Saunders was furious after seeing his side beaten 2-1 by former landlord’s Sittingbourne at Bourne Park.

It was a game that saw three red and nine yellow cards issued by the referee Mr Kaye.

He exclaimed “It’s been spoilt by one man at the end of the day.  I don’t think we played badly, we were the better side by a country mile, created all the chances. We just didn’t take our chances.  I thought we bossed the game, there was only one team trying to create things and even when we had ten or nine men, they still sat with men behind the ball.  But that is the way it goes.”

Maidstone dominated the game, but the Sittingbourne hit the front just two minutes before the break when Danny Lye appeared to be penalised while trying to hook the ball clear inside the six-yard box; a penalty that Ryan Golding dispatched beneath Deren Ibrahim’s dive.

Saunders added “They’ve scored a penalty from, I don’t know?  Foot high in the box?  I’ve not seen them given before, and then they’ve hit us on the break as we’re going for the game.  Overall I don’t think it was a bad performance; the man in charge has cost us the three points.”

The Stones went into the break with FIVE players in Mr Kaye’s book and down to ten men, as Lye was dismissed for picking up what appeared to be a harsh caution, allegedly for a deliberate handball.  The Maidstone boss was quick to defend his players, saying “I don’t think it was a lack of discipline from our players.  The ref was booking players for asking “why that was a freekick?” or “what was that for?”  If you turn round and ask, “what have I done?” you don’t expect to be booked for it.”

But Saunders said that at the break, he “told them to carry on with what we were doing.  I always felt that we would score a goal, but I’ve never known anything like it.  I don’t like talking about referee’s, but that man has cost us that game today.  It was a great goal by Kingy (Stuart King), and maybe we could have got another, but on the day we’ve created a lot of chances and haven’t finished them.  If the ref doesn’t give the penalty and all that, I’m sure we could have gone on to win the game.”

After Golding had added a second with a sublime overhead kick, King made an impact from the bench with a delightfully curled effort, to give the 10-men some hope.  But two further red cards, a straight red for Golding and one for Michael Phillips after a second booking disrupted the remainder of the game; a game that many believed barely had a bad challenge.

With the result appearing to hand the advantage in the Ryman One South title race to Dulwich Hamlet, who join the Stones at the summit with a game in hand, Maidstone now go into what appears to be another tough Kent derby, against a Ramsgate side that beat Herne Bay 3-1 on Good Friday.  Saunders believes though that his side could bounce back on Easter Monday, by adding “we’ve had a good season so far, and I still think we’ll have a good season.  This is just a stumbling block and I’ve said to the boys to use it, go on and try to win the next six games.”