Some of the Academy lads deserve to start the Final, says Maidstone United boss Jay Saunders

MAIDSTONE UNITED’S full-time manager Jay Saunders says he will keep faith with some of the club’s Academy players for their home Ryman League Robert Dyas Cup Final against AFC Sudbury on Tuesday night.

The Stones have blooded a number of the club’s players from the highly-rated Academy throughout the competition and Saunders revealed that some will face the Suffolk side at The Gallagher Stadium.

The Kent side have been drawn at home in all of the rounds and have defeated
Herne Bay (2-1), Hythe Town (3-1), Hastings United (2-0), Burgess Hill Town (1-0), and Grays Athletic (6-0) en-route to the Final.

AFC Sudbury arrive in Kent sitting in tenth-place in the Ryman League Division One North table with 64 points from 39 games.

They are ten points adrift of fifth-placed Needham Market, in a league that is being led by Tony Russell’s VCD Athletic, who are five points clear of Witham Town following their 3-1 home win over their title rivals at Oakwood at the weekend.

AFC Sudbury reached the League Cup Final in 2008, but they were defeated 5-4 on penalties by Ramsgate after the game finished goal-less after 120 minutes at Dartford’s Princes Park Stadium.

Saunders is looking forward to Maidstone United’s first Ryman League Cup Final.

He said: “We’ve had them watched a couple of times. I’m just waiting on a report now from Saturday’s game.  They’re a decent side. I know a couple of the lads down there. They’ve got played who have been about. They’ve got Michael Shinn so they’ll be a decent side.

“But it’s up to us really. It’s a Cup game. It’s a Cup Final, which is unusual that we’re at home in it but I suppose it’s a slight advantage to us and we have to make sure that we use it.”

When asked whether being at home in the showpiece final will add pressure on the favourites, Saunders replied: “It does a little bit, I suppose, because you get the same scenario. We’re going to be playing in front of a big crowd that Sudbury probably don’t often get so they will raise their game as most teams do against us at this level.

“It puts more pressure on us but at the same time we’re in the Final and we have to make sure, regardless of where we play, we do well.”

Saunders faces a selection headache for the game, but a positive one.  He has the decision to make whether to keep faith with the talented youngsters that got the club to the final, or field a strong side with first team players.

“There’s still be some Academy lads playing because we’ve got a couple of players cup-tied (Elliott Cox and Nathan Campbell) and we’ve got a few injuries (Jerrome Sobers) so we’ll instill the Academy lads,” said Saunders.

“They deserve to play. People like Jack Sullivan have played in every round. Dan Parkinson and Charlie Robertson have all done well for us.

“In the quarter-final Will Godmon played in goal and saved a penalty and we won the game (against Burgess Hill) 1-0 and Liam King scored against Hastings in the round before that.

“We’ve used the Academy lads all the way through. Some of them will still play. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to field a whole Academy team but they have done well to get us there and some of them deserve to start.

“At the same time we’ll make sure the balance is right to make sure we go out there and win the game.”

Saunders has first-hand experience of the talent within the club’s Academy because he is now full-time at the club.

He said: “We’ve got a great little set-up to be honest. It’s good to be involved in it.

“Jack Parkinson, Jim Bodle and Tom Parkinson had it running well before I got there and I enjoy going in every day.

“We’ve got a good bunch of lads.  We lose a lot of them but if you look at Saturday with five or six of them involved in the first team squad, which is great.  It’s twelve that we’ve used at some time or another and we’ve got the intake for next year, which has gone really well so we’ve got some real good quality coming in again as well.

“People see there is a genuine pathway to the first team.  I think at other Academies at other teams that isn’t the case.  They get to a certain point and have to go elsewhere where there is a genuine pathway.

“If it doesn’t quite work here other lads go elsewhere and get games. We’ve got lads at Hythe (Lee Pleau) and Leatherhead (Daniel Johnson) and places like that who are getting regular football.”

The Stones, who came away from Suffolk with a 2-1 win at Bury Town at the weekend, are in fourth-place in the Ryman Premier League table with 74 points.

Wealdstone have romped to the summit with 88 points from 40 games and are ten points clear of second-placed Dulwich Hamlet.  AFC Hornchurch are in third (75 points from 41 games), whilst Kingstonian are currently in fifth-place in the table with 74 points, with a game in hand on Saunders’ side.

The K’s relegated Cray Wanderers after winning 4-0 at Hayes Lane at the weekend.

Saunders has conceded the league title to Wealdstone.

He said: “To be honest they’ve been the best side we’ve played this year in the league.  I thought they were very good.  They’re full of experience. They were favourites at the start of the season and rightly so and they’ve proved that and to only lose three games all season you have to say they deserve it.

“We’ve made hard work of it for ourselves. We’ve been top three pretty much all season. We’ve had a bad run of form of late and we’ve now got to pick it up and try and get in them (play-offs).

“Don’t get me wrong. We’d like to have won it and gone up but at the moment we’ve got four games left and I think we need to win all four of them to realistically get into the play-offs now because people have got games in hand on us. That’s what we’re concentrating on.

“If we can win tomorrow in the Cup Final it will give us added boost and confidence going into the last games.”

Meanwhile, The Gallagher Stadium also hosts the Kent Women’s Cup Final between holders Gillingham and Charlton Athletic on Thursday, 10 April (7:45pm).

Visit Maidstone United’s website: www.maidstoneunited.co.uk

Maidstone United  v  AFC Sudbury
Ryman League Robert Dyas Cup Final
Tuesday 8^th April 2014
Kick Off 7:45pm
at The Gallagher Stadium, James Whatman Way, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1LQ