Maidstone United 3-0 Cray Wanderers - We're not accepting our fate, says Cray boss Keith Bird

MAIDSTONE UNITED  3-0  CRAY WANDERERS
Ryman Premier League
Tuesday 11^th February 2014
Stephen McCartney reports from James Whatman Way

CRAY WANDERERS manager Keith Bird says he has signed the players to escape relegation at the end of the season.

The Wands suffered their 23^rd league defeat of the season to remain rooted to the foot of the Ryman Premier League table with 14 points from 29 games to remain 12 points adrift of safety with seventeen games left.

However, Maidstone United remain at the summit with 63 points from 31 games after Alex Flisher, Jack Parkinson and Zac Attwood (penalty) scored in the second half to keep them level on points with Dulwich Hamlet.

Gavin Rose’s side defeated fifth-from-bottom Thamesmead Town at Champion Hill, courtesy of second half goals from Nyren Clunis and Erhun Oztumer and they have a game in hand on the Stones.

“I thought Maidstone are a quality side so we had a game plan as to how we could come away with something and we thought we executed that very well for 80 minutes,” said a proud Bird afterwards.

“I thought the referee had a nightmare in the first half before he went off injured. It should have been a penalty early in the game. I think everyone agreed with that, even the Maidstone fans agreed with that and that could have changed things.

“I think after 80 minutes, Maidstone’s quality started to really come through. There was really no way back once they went 2-0 up.  They’re top of the league and you can see why they’re top of the league.

“But I was very proud of our lads for 80 minutes and I think there’s positives for us.

“No disrespect to who we’ve got in front of us but I think the teams that we’ve played up to this point really have been at the top end of the table most of the games we’ve had.

“We’ve got 17 games left and we feel we can get something out of all of those 17 games and that’s what we’re going to be focused on.”

Maidstone United manager Jay Saunders was delighted with his side’s eighteenth league win of the season that keeps them in the hunt for the title.

“I think it was one of them tonight,” he said.

“We was on a hiding to nothing.  When you’re playing a bottom-of-the-table side and you’re top, obviously you expect to turn up and roll them over.

“I spoke to a couple of people about them and I spoke to someone today at Margate who played them (winning 4-1 at Hayes Lane last Tuesday) and he said if you’re patient you’ll get your chances.

“I thought we had a hell of a lot of chances tonight and to be fair should have been out of sight.

“I thought it was a comfortable night. I don’t think Worgs (Lee Worgan) has had too much to do. They’ve had a couple of half chances.

“In all fairness I thought we’ve dominated possession but it was just a case of if we could get the first and I think if we got the first and the second a bit earlier we could have scored a lot more.”

Maidstone United created the first of many chances, when inside the opening four minutes they won the first of ten corners.

Luke Rooney cut the ball back to Alex Brown, who cracked a right-footed rasping angled drive from 20-yards, which was plucked out of the air by visiting keeper Darren Behcet.

Cray Wanderers immediately went up the other end and Morgan Ferrier laid the ball off to debutant Tyrone Berry, whose right-footed drive from 30-yards sailed over the crossbar.

Former Gillingham midfielder Rooney, 23, who was handed his debut at the weekend against Canvey Island, was pulling the strings in the middle of the park.

“I thought Luke Rooney in midfield looked good, he runs things,” praised Saunders.

“I asked him to play a different role to what he normally does because of Michael Phillips being injured and Nathan Campbell ill and be a bit more disciplined but I thought he kept us ticking over and played some great balls.”

Rooney, who was spotted playing for Haart of Kent County League side Stansfeld Oxford & Bermondsey Club last month, played the ball out to Kaiyne Woolery, who cut inside before his shot fell at Attwood’s feet inside the box and the former Margate striker turned and forced Behcet to make a smart low save to his left.

However, struggling Cray Wanderers should have taken the lead in the fifteenth minute.

Berry and Morgan Ferrier linked up well to find left-back Jordan Bird, whose low cross found debutant Merrick James-Lewis unmarked inside the box and his side-footed shot from ten-yards was blocked by Parkinson.

The Stones faithful felt Collin had scored his 23^rd goal of the season, but Behcet made a brilliant save.

Attwood cut the ball back to Collin, who drilled a right-footed angled drive from fifteen-yards, which was destined to find the net but Behcet blocked with his body and the ball looped over the crossbar for a corner.

Bird is pleased that he has finally found a man who can make the number one jersey his own.

“The goalkeeping position has been a challenge for us,” admitted the former Bromley reserve team manager.

“We took young Charlie Grainger on loan from Leyton Orient, who did really well as a youngster, only seventeen and we were proven to do the right thing – he’s a quality keeper.  He actually got his call up to the England under 18 squad today.  Unfortunately we lost him on Christmas Eve with Leyton Orient losing their number one (to injury) and we went through Christmas and the New Year without a recognised keeper.

“Since we have taken over, I think we’ve had certainly four to six games without a recognised keeper and having Darren in is tremendous. It just gives the whole back four a lot more confidence and the other thing is we’ve signed Nick (Taylor) whose come in as our number two, who has a presence and he’s played at a good level.”

Referee Ian Fissenden pointed to the spot for the first time in the 24^th minute to penalise Alex Stavrinou for a foul on Tom Mills inside the Cray Wanderers penalty area.

It was to be Maidstone United’s fifth penalty in their last five games, but Collin didn’t take the opportunity.

His right-footed penalty hit the right-hand post and Woolery failed to control the ball from the rebound and resilient looking Cray Wanderers survived.

“Which I think is fair in our opinion and it’s just our opinion. In our opinion it wasn’t a penalty,” said Bird.

“I thought it was a clear cut penalty that we had and I don’t think that was a penalty. Fortunately that didn’t go in and sure that it didn’t make any difference to the end result of the game.

Saunders added: “I think because we were desperate to get on the scoresheet early we probably forced it a little bit too much.”

Cray Wanderers ventured forward on the half-hour mark when former Bromley and Salisbury City right-back Ugo Udoji floated over a cross towards the far post, which was knocked down by Stavrinou and striker Paul Vines cracked his left-footed volley screaming agonisingly wide of the left-hand post from 20-yards.

But there was to be a 12 minute delay after the referee pulled up with a groin strain and once play resumed assistant referee Adam Bakalarz took the whistle and qualified referee Joseph McKay came from the crowd to volunteer his services to run the line.
  
Cray Wanderers created their best chance of the night five minutes after play resumed.

Central defender Jide Maduako played the ball up to Ferrier who played Berry in behind the Maidstone United defence but the former Farnborough winger lashed his right-footed shot towards goal, which forced Lee Worgan to block high to his left to put the ball behind for a corner.

Bird said: “He’s a great signing for us, we’re very pleased to have him on board. If you look at the squad now, the amount of experience that we’ve got in the squad from the squad we inherited when we came in there’s no comparison really.”

The Stones created a trio of chances before the end of a 60 minute first half.

Flisher slid the ball through to Collin at the near post and his low right-footed shot from six-yards forced Behcet to make a low save to his right to hold on to the ball.

Rooney received the ball from Jerrome Sobers before cracking a right-footed drive, which sailed harmlessly over the Wands crossbar from 22-yards.

And a penetrating run from Woolery saw him cut into the penalty area for Collin to clip an acrobatic hooked volley just past the left-hand post from sixteen-yards.

Saunders felt frustrated that the score was goal-less at the break.

He said: “You’re sometimes hoping someone just scuffs one in, just to go in.

“At half-time we just said to the lads ‘be patient, keep passing the ball’

“I thought we could’ve used it a bit better first half. Second half we kept it a lot better and when we did that I thought we created more chances.”

Cray Wanderers created the first chance of the second half when Udoji clipped a diagonal 50-yard pass for Stavrinou to send his header across Worgan and past the foot of the far post from 22-yards.

But the Wands were not the same threat as they were during the first half.

Maidstone United finally broke Cray Wanderers’ resilience with their first goal in the 51^st minute.

Woolery broke down the right flank and whipped in a low cross into the penalty area, where Collin and Attwood exchanged passes twice and the ball fell loose to Flisher to place his left-footed shot into the left-hand corner of the net from 12-yards for his sixth goal of the season.

Saunders was pleased with Flisher that he found the target.

He said: “Normally, in general he laces them and a few times he puts them over but to be fair he side-footed it in. He took it well.

“You just think it’s going to be one of those nights but to be fair to the lads they kept plugging away. I felt once we got one we’ll go and score a couple more.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’d like to score a few more being at home, after a disappointing game Saturday (1-1 home draw against Canvey Island) but we got the job done and at the beginning of the night I would have taken a 1-0.”

Bird added: “I think Maidstone played brilliantly tonight and I think the result was a fair result.  They were worthy winners.

“Unfortunately the first two goals came from mistakes. We spent a lot of time on Saturday morning looking at a video session trying to minimise the amount of mistakes and it actually helped tonight, we minimised the amount of mistakes a great deal but unfortunately as often happens with goals they do come from mistakes.   No arguments, no questions or arguments about them from our perspective, all three were well taken.”

The Stones deserved their lead and they squandered further chances during the rest of the second half.

Woolery delivered another cross from the right and the ball found Flisher lurking at the far post and he cut the ball back to Collin, who played the ball across the face of goal but Attwood blasted his right-footed shot over from six-yards.

Woolery then won a foot race with Jordan Bird down the right flank and cut the ball back to an unmarked Alex Brown, who blasted his right-footed shot over the bar from 12-yards.

Attwood turned provider for Rooney, who curled his right-footed shot around the far post.

Cray Wanderers created another chance to bring themselves back into the game on the hour-mark.

Stavrinou and Ferrier were involved in the move which saw former Bromley player Steve Smith whip in a left-footed cross from the left for the unmarked Vines to plant his header harmlessly wide of the far post from 12-yards.

Maidstone United were to be denied in the 66^th minute when Rooney’s swung in a corner from the right and Parkinson’s free-header from 10-yards was headed off the line by Stavrinou.

Collin’s fine pass put Woolery through on goal but the winger blasted his right-footed shot over the bar when he only had Behcet to beat.

But Maidstone United killed the game off with a second goal with thirteen minutes remaining through Parkinson.

Rooney’s free-kick was not cleared by the Cray Wanderers defence and Collin swept the ball across goal for Parkinson to stretch out his left leg to stab his first time shot into the net.

Saunders said: “It was important we got that second goal. I think all the time you’re 1-0 you’re thinking to yourself they could nick one from a set-piece or something because I think that’s what they were looking for, but once we got that second goal I felt comfortable and I was hoping for a few more.”

Bird was disappointed that his side leaked another goal from a set-piece.

He said: “The frustrating thing with the second one, I talk about mistakes, when we first came in we were conceding goals from set-pieces and crosses. We’ve all but minimised that so to lose the second one when we was still in the game from a set-piece and we’ve looked at it from our perspective and two of our players took up poor starting positions and we were punished for that.”

Fine work from Maidstone United substitute Charley Robertson on the right saw the home side create another chance to score but Behcet made a smart low save to his right to deny Attwood scoring with his left-foot.

Attwood ran through and stroked his shot across Behcet and past the far post and Woolery’s last action of the night was to curl his shot wide from 20-yards.

Flisher flashed his left-footed drive narrowly past the foot of the left-hand post from 25-yards, before Maidstone United wrapped up the comfortable victory through Attwood’s injury-time penalty.

Rooney charged through only to be brought down by Bird and stand-in referee Mr Bakalarz pointed to the spot.

There was exchanges between Rooney and Attwood who should take the penalty so Parkinson went over to the pair and decided it was Attwood’s chance to get on the scoresheet.

He obliged and stroked his left-footed penalty over the diving Behcet into the top right-hand corner.

When asked about the battle to take the penalty kick, Saunders said: “Last week no-one wanted it and this week…

“Luke’s done well to get the penalty and I think he was desperate to take it but in all fairness to Zac, Frannie’s always been the number one penalty talker. He’s missed and he’s off the pitch so Zac wanted it but Luke wasn’t aware of the situation so I think he would have loved the penalty.

“But it’s one of them. I don’t mind. If you’ve got a few that want to take it, it’s not a bad thing. Rather than people not wanting them.”

Bird added: “He’s my nephew. No complaints from my perspective. I’ve not actually spoken to Jordan yet. He thinks he was hard done by but from our perspective he sort of swung a leg in there and I feel it’s a clear cut penalty to be fair to Maidstone.”

Despite top-playing-bottom, Maidstone United had to play well to beat a resilient Cray Wanderers side.

Saunders admitted his side had to keep patient an in the end had chances to win by more than three goals.

He said: “We’re on a hiding to nothing there when you’re top and you’re playing bottom. Everyone thinks you’re going to roll them over. It’s just going to be a cricket score.

“They’ve brought in three lads last night and they’re trying to bring players in and change it and to be fair to them I thought they worked very hard first half.

“But I said to the lads if we can be patient and we keep moving it we can create openings. I thought they defended quite well first half. Once we started moving them, about it was making us more chances.

“It could have and should have (been more than 3-0).  There were a lot of chances to be fair. On another day you put them all away and you win five or six or seven but it wasn’t to be and I take the 3-0.”

Cray Wanderers have seventeen games of their season remaining and whilst some supporters believe their side are going down, Bird insists he is not giving up.

“That’s why the next seventeen games are very exciting for us because not only do I think all of the seventeen games that we’ve got in front of us are games that we can get something out of but the squad we’ve got now we’re pretty much complete.

“Our season and our whole first season here at Cray really should be judged on the next seventeen games.  Our next seventeen games will see how much progress we have made.

Cray Wanderers have used 66 players this season, a club record.

Bird said: “We’ve gone through a very difficult transition period when we first came in. We sort of looked at what we had and had to make some very quick decisions. Then we brought some players’ in.

“We had a very different budget at that time. We don’t have a great budget now but we did get an improvement on the budget around December time and that allows us to make some signings which we have done now.

“We came in and we had to unfortunately release some players to use the resources that we had in December then really start going out and building a squad.

“We’ve put out a statement of intent really. We’re not accepting our fate. We’ve gone out and we’ve increased the budget and we’ve signed the players we expect to keep us up.”

Maidstone United: Lee Worgan, Elliott Cox, Tom Mills, Alex Brown (Charley Robertson 78), Jerrome Sobers, Luke Rooney, Kaiyne Woolery (Jack Sullivan 88), Jack Parkinson, Zac Attwood, Frannie Collin (Jack Harris 83), Alex Flisher.
Subs: Dan Parkinson, Will Godmon

Goals: Alex Flisher 51, Jack Parkinson 77, Zac Attwood 90 (penalty)

Cray Wanderers: Darren Behcet, Ugo Udogi, Jordan Bird, Merrick James-Lewis, Jide Maduako, Helge Orome, Tyrone Berry, Alex Stavrinou, Paul Vines, Morgan Ferrier (Adrian Stone 86), Steve Smith (Giannoulis Fakinos 72).
Subs: Nathan Simpson, Dmitri Larin, Nick Taylor

Booked: Steve Smith 23, Paul Vines 23, Jordan Bird 90

Attendance: 1,292
Referee: Mr Ian Fissenden (Gillingham)
Assistants: Mr Adam Bakalarz (Bromley) & Mr Valentine Anekwe (Bromley)
Stand-in Assistant: Mr Joseph McKay (Maidstone)