After a lack-lustre first half, Maidstone United came back to claim the F.A. Cup scalp of Football League basement club Macclesfield Town.

Early on, the visitors enjoyed the better of the exchanges and went ahead with an excellent goal by Ben Stephens. After that Macclesfield controlled the period without looking too threatening.

Stones’ manager Harry Wheeler admitted that there were some strong words spoken at half time. “There was a little bit of a physical rough up in there.” he said. “We shook it up a little and had a little bit of verbals.

“Sometimes you need that. You walk across at half time. Sometimes, do I need to be nice if it’s not going well but today we need to go in there and ruffle a few feathers at half time. Some of the players did that as well.”

Explaining the message that he wanted to give the team, he said “They needed to be a bit more intense and they were more than we were. There’s no excuse for that.”

Also at half time he made a technical change at half time by putting Jake Cassidy out wide with Elliott Romain playing down the middle. “We felt the two centre halves weren’t bad and we weren’t winning any second balls. We just felt that if we could get him (Cassidy) on to the full backs it might work a little bit more.

“And Elliott, they weren’t the most mobile of centre halves, you know how hard he works, puts people under pressure. For today that was right. Going forward, I’m not saying that happens every week but for today that was the right switch to make.

Jack Powell scored the equaliser with a superb free kick, just when Wheeler wanted it. “A great finish.” said Wheeler. “He’s got that. He’s a great set-piece taker, a great threat, and it’s a massive time in the game. We said, ‘First ten minutes in the second half, can we get a goal?’ and if we do we feel we can go on to win it. It was a great time to score.”

Simon Walton saw a header come back off the post that Wheeler believed had crossed the line. “From our angle it’s definitely in.” he said. “People around here are saying it’s definitely in. My only thing I say is if we can see it’s in from sixty yards away, and it is, what’s the lino doing?

“People forget that we won the game so it’s alright but we might not have won the game. It might have ended one all and we might have gone there and lost in the replay. That would cost the club a lot of money. There’s a great thing about referee respect, and we were great on the side and we’ve been respectful but at times there’s some odd things and if you’re looking along the line as a linesman, that’s not a hard decision to make.”

However, Maidstone did win it when Romain was tumbled in the penalty are and Blair Turgott converted. “Great composure.” purred Wheeler. “But that’s what you expect. He’s a big player. Big players step up in big moments and he did it at Braintree.

“The keeper (Kieran O’Hara)’s gone the right way and it’s a great finish and I don’t think that people who haven’t ever taken those realise how much pressure he’s under there. He’s a very good sportsman.”

Once ahead, Macclesfield showed no threat and Wheeler was delighted with his team’s professionalism. “We saw it out comfortably but that’s the know how” said Wheeler. “That’s the savvyness that we spoke about when we came in. They made the right decisions under pressure. That’s the sign of a good team.

“We’re still getting there. We’re getting there week by week. We’re still not there. You’ll see the first half’s not good enough but the second half’s fantastic and that’s the second time in just over a week that we’ve come from behind. It’s a great reaction again.”

As delighted as he was to have won, Wheeler knows that Maidstone are still only one point above the drop zone. He confirmed “The important thing’s the league. We need to keep pushing on. We had a great last two results. Away at Ebbsfleet, which is a tough place to go, and then away to Barnet with a win.

“It’s really important, the league and our focus goes back on that as of now. It (the cup win)’s a massive boost. We’ll use that not in a complacent way but in a productive way.”

Finally, he was keen to praise the Stone’ supporters. “They were still loud in the first half when we were giving them nothing to sing about.”said Wheeler. “Second half we repaid them and they got louder and we got louder and we got better and they got better. It all goes hand in hand.”

Images courtesy of Dave Budden