Maidstone United’s manager, Jay Saunders, was thrilled by his side’s comeback victory over relegation rivals Woking.
It’s a victory that moves the Stones two places and four points clear of the drop zone, still with a game in hand on most of the teams around them.
It had looked very different 25 minutes into the game at Kingfield when Jamie Lucas added to an opening goal from Delano Sam-Yorke, who had been on loan at the Gallagher Stadium as recently as last weekend, to put Woking two-nil ahead after the Stones had looked the more positive during the early exchanges.
Saunders admitted “I didn’t expect it as we started the game very well. We were on top for 10-15 minutes and had some chances that we weren’t able to take. I thought there were moments where we weren’t quite at it and that their work-rate was better; maybe we were a little bit overconfident because we have to go out and earn every point. But with their first real chance, they’ve scored. From where I was it looked offside, and Delano has said to the boys he thought he was offside. That’s the way it goes and then they get a second from a mistake, and you start to think it’s not our day.”
“It’s frustrating really, because we have been good defensively of late. Whether Delano is offside or not for the first one (video pictures later showed that Joe Pigott was playing Sam-Yorke onside) we haven’t tracked our man, and then for the second, (Kevin) Lokko has ended up on the wrong side of his man, so it could have been stopped at source.”
Only four minutes after conceding Woking’s second, Maidstone hit back through in-form striker, Jamar Loza, and this appeared to restore the belief in the men in amber. Saunders added “Jam’s goal soon after had a big part to play in getting back into the game. Reece has broken well from a Woking corner, and it was a great finish by Jam. At 2-1 down, Nick (Southall) said to me that a point would be a good one here, then all of a sudden we’ve walked away with a 4-2 win.”
“We had a throw-in second half and I don’t know who got the flick on, but you can see from the pictures that it appeared to be over the line, and I thought it was definitely going to be one of those days. But every time we got near their box, I felt that Jam and then Yemi (Odubade) could cause problems for them.”
It took until the 67th minute for Loza to pull Maidstone level, after good work by Alex Flisher inside the Woking box, and nine minutes later, the forward had his first senior hatrick as he capitalised on a mistake by Woking’s Jake Caprice. Flisher then set up a fourth for Yemi Odubade to round off an outstanding second half performance.
The Stones’ manager was quick to praise the performance of Loza, who had also scored the equaliser in the midweek draw against Sutton United, and Maidstone’s travelling support, by saying “they were big goals for us. Jam caught me with an elbow celebrating his hatrick, so that will be a fine for him, but you could see the emotions at that moment from all of the players and the supporters – who again, were great. They (the 603 who had made the journey round the M25) have been incredible all season. Even when we’d been in the spell of eight without a win, they were there for us. They’ve been fantastic and I’m glad that we’ve pulled out a performance and a great result.
Throughout the season, one message that Jay Saunders has tried to get across is the need for balance, based on how tough the Vanarama National League is. He reflected that “we are where we are, but this was a good result for us. I’ve said for the last few weeks – and we are seven unbeaten now – that we’ve shown a mental toughness that maybe we didn’t have earlier in the season. Then if we’d go two down, that was it, over, especially if, as today, we were having a good spell in the game. But now we don’t seem to crumble as much, and that’s all credit to the lads and I’m delighted for them. It was a good second half performance, a good three points, but I don’t want to hype it up.”
“There is a long way to go though, and there will be twists and turns. It’s a good result, but there’s no point in coming here to get that result, then go and lose the next few, because then we will be back in trouble. They are all big games and we’ll concentrate now on the next one. This is one win in what will be eight massive games. I don’t want the boys to get carried away (games against four of the current top five in National League are part of the run-in, along with long away trips to Macclesfield and Gateshead) as they are tough games, but at least we’ve given ourselves a little bit better chance of staying in the League.”
”Barrow is going to be a really difficult one. They are pushing for the playoffs, they are a big side, and although we were in the game for a bit up there, they gave us a really tough time. This time, we’re at home, on a good run, and I think the boys are looking forward to it.”
With this win, combined with Forest Green’s defeat at Lincoln, the Stones are the current form side in the National League, making Jay Saunders one of the leading candidates for the Manager of the Month title. Hopefully, if this deserved award does come his way, it won’t distract from the job that remains to be done.