We had to win for our walking fans, says Hume - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS

Saturday 10th February 2007

Maidstone United joint-manager Lloyd Hume hailed the three groups of fans that walked from the county town to Crabble and admitted that their dedication towards the Ryman League Division One South club helped motivate his team to seal their fine 4-2 win at league leaders Dover Athletic today, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Stones bagged three points by winning an enthralling Kent derby, which attracted the largest crowd of the season to Crabble when 1,527 watched the Stones climb to third place in the table.

Fans Geoff Hunt and James Ingarfield set off from the site of the club’s new home at James Whatman Way on Thursday morning and battled their way through the elements and admitted to being “relieved” to have walked the 43 miles before enjoying some refreshments in the Cricketers’ public house, yards from Dover Athletic’s ground before the game.

The pair explained EXCLUSIVLEY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk that the idea to walk to Dover was to raise money for the club’s new stadium, which they expect to move into next season, thus ending their 20-year exile.

“A fella called Butch (Richard Nott), a Maidstone supporter for the last thirty years, had a silly idea sitting in the stand one day to raise some money, was walking to Dover,” recalled Geoff Hunt.

“Obviously (Dover is) a ground in Kent, it’s possibly one you could walk to if you’re that silly.

“We set off on Thursday morning at 7:30 from James Whatman Way. It was snowing and sleeting when we left.

“We were soaked by the time we got out of Maidstone so it didn’t make it very easy.”

The pair revealed that there were times when they thought “why are we doing this?” but bravely soldiered on.

Geoff added: “I think as we said we’ll do it I think there was no doubt about it, we had to do it for our sponsor money and for the club.

“I know it’s only a small contribution but every little helps as they say.”

Enjoying a well-deserved drink or two with their fellow walkers and fans, James Ingarfield hoped fans throughout Kent will acknowledge their achievement by pledging sponsorship money to the club.

Explaining how he felt, he said: “Relieved more than anything, tired, got a few blisters but hopefully we’ll raise lots of money for the club.

“We set a challenge for ourselves. Butch came up with a suggestion, I think it was before Christmas, to walk to Dover.

“At the time it didn’t seem a bad idea but after last night we were struggling a bit but it’s now worth it now we’re here.

“It’s about raising money for the club and if we can get back to Maidstone next year at Whatman Way after twenty years away from the town it would be a really proud moment for everyone involved with the club.”

Their efforts, however, were rewarded as their heroes defeated Dover Athletic, courtesy of goals from Nick Hegley and Alex Tiesse, whose pace caused Dover problems throughout, and second half penalties from Mo Takaloo and substitute Simon Austin.

“To be honest, last night we couldn’t give a toss about the game but now it’s obviously come back to us and hopefully the boys will do us proud today,” said a tired James.

“Whatever the result, we’re still in with a chance of getting that top spot.”

But James believes the club will attract the younger element once they return to the county town - something that they’ve missed out on during their exile.

He said: “I’ve spread the word about Maidstone because I used to go as a kid when I was about seven in the 80s and obviously when the club folded it was difficult to watch them.

“But we’ll come back and hopefully we’ll get some young Maidstone fans. It will be good to get seven or eight year olds back into the club

“We’ve come a long way in a short period of time really since we’ve re-formed and hopefully it’s a big example to other clubs what can be done.”

Hume, meanwhile, praised the fans that made the long walk to Dover, and rewarded them with a victory.

“I’ve said on the radio funnily enough yesterday that what they do epitomises the feeling behind this club and where everyone wants this club to be,” he said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“The effort they put in, we talked about that in our team talk with the players, and we said “if they can put that much into the club we should be doing the same.”

“I challenged the players but to be fair to them they rose to that and that’s why we stayed out to the middle of the pitch and I made the players stay until all the fans were ready.

“We went over to the fans and gave them a big cheer because they deserve it.”

Hume appealed to the fans that only attend away games to make that effort to watch them at Sittingbourne’s Bourne Park.

“They’ve been fantastic all season,” he said. “I just wish they get behind us like that at home because the away support was absolutely phenomenal.

“They’ve been getting better at home to be fair but I think it’s no secret that some of the Maidstone fans don’t particularly like it there.

“I know it’s an old cliché, but they do make a twelve man for us and when they do get behind the players it makes us run that extra yard and that’s vital at this level of football so I’m delighted for them and the hard work they’ve put in this week and we’ve given them a result to be proud off.”

Maidstone United secretary Darren Lovell, meanwhile, wanted to publicly thank Dover Athletic officials and supporters for playing their part in the day.

He said EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk : “I think it should be said today that everybody from Dover, they often get bad press, unjustly so, that they’ve shown nothing but good grace in the way they accepted the defeat today.

“They’ve been very pleasant from the top right from the very top man, through the directors and supporters

“Everybody has conducted themselves well, they’ve been perfect hosts today.

“They’ve showed they are a big football club because they’ve managed to host a game with 1,500 people at it without having to take any extra steps as they would for a normal game.

“It’s a big football club, it’s a good football club and today to everyone at Maidstone United they’ve proved they are a good club, they are good people.

“Also I would like to pay true to the fact that they just didn’t play lip service to the fact that our supporters that walked the 43 miles from Maidstone to Dover today, but those supporters have gone out on a limb, done a really hard task and they’ve got here and the Dover people have been great in the way that they’ve received them.

“They welcomed them, they congratulated them and they’ve looked after them so thank you Dover Athletic Football Club. You’re a credit to your area.”

Three FANTASTIC Kent football clubs, Dartford, Maidstone United and Dover Athletic are all battling it out in the TOP FOUR - which is brilliant to see.

Sadly, only two teams can clinch promotion out of this division (and one of them are via the end of season play-off lottery) but I’m sure that it’s going to go down to the wire and you can read all the drama that evolves on www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

You can pledge money to Maidstone United's new stadium by clicking onto www.maidstoneunited.co.uk.

Visit club websites: