Maidstone United pulled off one of the biggest shock results of the FA Cup First Round Proper at the LCI Rail Stadium by defeating EFL Two side Cheltenham Town.
First half goals from Delano Sam-Yorke and Joe Pigott, within 60 seconds of each other, were added to by a delightful lob from Zavon Hines to give the Stones a 3-0 half-time lead in front of 548 travelling supporters.
Cheltenham pulled one back through Brian Graham (originally thought to be Kevin Dawson), but Sam-Yorke struck his second a minute later before being dismissed for a reckless lunge on Mohammed Eisa – although TV replays suggest no contact was made.
Another Graham header led to an own goal rebounding off the luckless Alex Finney, but despite concerted pressure, Cheltenham’s hopes were denied by a combination of the outstanding Lee Worgan and the dismissal of Dawson with 10 minutes remaining.
A naturally delighted Jay Saunders, approaching his 7th year in charge of Maidstone, expressed “It was a really good FA Cup tie, a great atmosphere and I thought we were really good for the first 45 minutes. It’s shown what we are capable of and I’m delighted with the boys. When you come into games like this against teams above you (Cheltenham sitting 15th in League 2, 14 places above Maidstone in the pyramid), you need everyone on their game. We went through a few things this week and they’ve taken it all on board.”
“The first half was such a professional performance, possibly an almost perfect performance. If anything we’re probably disappointed that we couldn’t nick a couple of more goals. I don’t know if it was the best performance as we’ve been very good at times this season, but to come to a League Two club and really control the game was pleasing. We speak about game management, slowing it down at times and if you look at that first half – apart from a couple of early chances – it was mainly us. We looked a real threat every time we went forward. To come here and score four goals against a side like this speaks volumes for our performance.”
“We felt our front three could be a real threat” Saunders added, “so we moved Jai (Reason) back inside to give a little more protection. I don’t want to sound disrespectful to Cheltenham, but we thought, and spoke about, that we could cause their back four problems. We had a couple of corners that we could have scored from early on and the boys were outstanding. Pigs (Joe Pigott), Zavon (Hines) and D (Delano Sam-Yorke) did it all day, and for all three forwards to get on the scoresheet was excellent. All the goals were excellent, D’s header especially for the first of his two; it’s just a shame about his sending off, but we will look at that. His second, when they got back to 3-1, was so crucial that it seemed to knock the stuffing out of them.”
“The second half was difficult. Once the sending off happened it changed the pattern of the game, but the boys dug deep. I’m not too sure about the sending off, I don’t think D needed to go into the tackle, but I want to have a look at it again. That made it tough for us, but as soon as they went down to 10 men as well we looked quite comfortable again. Worgs (Lee Worgan) pulled off some good saves and it was difficult as they are a very big side.”
“When they were chucking everything at us I was nervous, but when you’ve got the likes of Lee Worgan in goal, and the amount of experience running through the team now, you always have a chance. We’ve got a team now that has Football League, Championship and even Premier League experience running through it, and that can be important when the pressure comes on.”
Maidstone could have been considered fortunate that referee, Mr Kevin Johnson, took a lenient view to a tackle by Seth Nana Twumasi just into the second half, having booked the full back seconds before the interval. Saunders explained “we lost our way a little when we had to take Seth off after a silly tackle that he didn’t have to make. The ref gave the indication that one more foul and he would be off, so we had to reshuffle. I was disappointed with the two goals we conceded because we had worked on dealing with Brian Graham at the back post, and I don’t think we dealt with either one well, although they had the stroke of luck with the rebound off Alex Finney.”
“When you come here, and at times it is backs to the wall, you need everyone to perform, to dig deep and to a man, the subs as well, they were excellent.”
So the Stones can look forward to Monday evening’s Second Round draw as one of only 9 Non-League sides definitely in the hat (although that number could reach 16), and reflect on their fourth consecutive year in the main draw. Jay Saunders wouldn’t be drawn on who he would like to meet, saying “it’s the same answer I always give; a home tie against the lowest opposition possible. We are delighted to be in the draw. A few years ago (after the replay win against Stevenage) the draw wasn’t too kind with the trip to Wrexham, but we’ve moved on since then. We’re doing well in the National League, and we seem to be getting used to big games. The Ebbsfleet game (the National South playoff Final) will always stand out, but this result is up there.”