Maidstone United 4 Beckenham Town 3 (aet)

Despite going a goal down in the first five minutes Beckenham Town pulled themselves back to take this Kentish Observer League Cup-tie into extra time but lack of concentration was all it took to allow Maidstone United to score the vital goal to send them into the semi-final, writes Ian Muir.

It was agony for Town as the home side were awarded two penalties in close succession against the run of play.
 
In the opening exchanges it was Maidstone who took the imitative and forced Town onto the back foot and some fine work on the left flank allowed Nick Hegley to open the scoring after only four minutes.

To make matters worse for Town Plumain limped off after only 15 minutes. The substitution appeared to wake Town up from their gentle slumber and they started entertaining the crowd with their trademark one-touch football.

The home side seemed to calm down from their early match frenzy and it was Town who started to dictate the play with Vines and Lodge doing the entire front running.

With 31 minutes gone Beckenham forced a corner on the right and it was Ahwan who ran in at the far post to head home.

Town’s second loomed and a defence splitting pass by Adeniyi found Vines in space on the left, as he turned his marker he put an inch perfect ball into the path of Dean Lodge who made no mistake from 10 yards.

Going into the break it was nearly all Town and despite strong penalty appeal it was the Stones Takaloo who was judged to have committed an offence. Ahwan had now remedied the early threat of Takaloo, who was substituted later in the match.
 
The second period allowed Town a lot more space in the midfield, Town were up against former player Nathan Paul who was playing in an unfamiliar midfield role but failed to make an impression.

Kadi replaced Cheeseman and this gave Town the advantage in the centre, his first time passes catching Maidstone out at every opportunity.

However, against the run of play Maidstone scored from the penalty spot after Meeko was judged to have felled Celaire who had run the entire length of the pitch. Austin scored from the resulting penalty.

In the 75 minute another penalty was awarded when Tolfrey dived at the feet of Sperring and just clipped his heels, there appeared to be no immediate danger as Ahwan was on Sperrings shoulder as he ran through.

Minutes later Vines was through and went down inside the penalty box under a heavy challenge only to see play waved on. Green was causing Maidstone problems on the right flank after coming on for the injured Martin and had a series of powerful shots saved by the keeper.  
 
However, with only five minutes remaining on the clock Adeniyi scored the goal of the game with a fierce angled drive from the edge of the area beyond the outstretched keeper to send the match into extra time.

With 6 minutes to go in the first period Mullin got a vital touch to turn Green's shot round in the post.

Clear-cut chances from both sides were now becoming rare and it looked as if a penalty shoot out would decide the tie. A quick throw in caught Town of guard and Rowland ran on to score the winner. With only a few minutes left another comeback by Town was beaten by the clock.

Beckenham Town manager Gavin Rose said: ”I was disappointed we lost and we started very slowly almost as if we had forgotten how Maidstone play, we could have gone two goals down.

”We managed to get our act together and took the game to them. The 2 penalties cost us dearly against the run of play. Especially the second as we could have defended.

”We switched off on the forth goal. Apart from the result there were some decent performances from Paul Vines Dean Lodge and Cedric Meeko".
 
Beckenham Town: Rob Tolfrey, Aliy Kyezu, Nicholas Plumain (Cedric Meeko), Peter Adeniyi, Errison Ahwan, Asher Hudson, Dean Lodge, Ohran Stewart, Paul Vines, Ryan Martin (Ellis Green) Jamie Cheeseman [Junior Kadi). Subs: Gavin Rose, Daniel Morris.

Next Saturday (3pm) Beckenham entertain Tunbridge Wells at Eden Park Avenue.