MATCH REPORT | Maidstone 0 - 1 Hemel Town

Written by Allan Mitchell

Lee Allinson’s Tudors came away from the intimidating Gallagher Arena with a hard earned victory that Lee described as the result of the season so far.

The Tudors had yet to record a victory against The Stones in any National League fixture prior to this game, recording five draws and six defeats and the Gallagher has always been a tough place to come but they defied the odds with a superb rear guard battle that kept the home side at bay.

Allinson was without influential skipper Kyle Ajayi who was starting a three match ban after receiving a straight red card in the disappointing defeat against Slough and he introduced new signing Louis Lomas as a direct replacement and it has to be said that Louis had a superb game after having only had two training sessions with his new teammates.

Maidstone came out of blocks early and were determined to put the visitors on the back foot from the start. Michael Johnson had to make a sharp save from Mohammed Faal in the second minute and The Stones forced a couple of corners in the first five minutes before Hemel finally got a foothold in the game and started to create chances themselves. Oliver Davies brought the best out of Nathan Harness who saved well low down.

Maidstone continued to have a lot of possession but Hemel’s back line were defending superbly and chances were few and far between. The game was effectively decided just before the interval after Michael Johnson made a brilliant point blank save from Riley Court after he had finally managed to find some space to get a shot away on 43 minutes.

This proved pivotal as just four minutes later with the half heading into injury time the Tudors took the lead. They were awarded a freekick out on the left just inside the halfway line, it was fed into the area by Jack Lorentzen-Jones where it was headed back across the face of box to Millar Mathews-Lewis who had his back to goal, he chested the ball down before firing the ball home with an overhead kick that gave Harness no chance.

Half Time 0-1

The Stones came out in the second half all guns blazing determined to get back on terms and they nearly forced an equaliser when a low cross was almost turned in by Faal, the ball just going wide of the post. Faal then forced another save out of Johnson as they ramped up the pressure but Hemel’s back line held firm, putting their bodies on the line with some superb defending.

TJ Bramble received a yellow card after trying an overhead kick that Charlie Rowan felt the full force of, getting a kick in the face that required some lengthy treatment.

As the clock ticked down you felt that the home side were running out of ideas as Hemel continued to defend their lead and when they did find any way through it was Michael Johnson who stood in their way with some excellent goalkeeping to deny them.

The referee finally called time after nearly seven minutes of injury time and the Tudors returned to Hertfordshire with three very hard earned points and their first victory against Maidstone in 12 games that further cemented their play off ambitions, leaving them just four points off the top spot in yet another tightly fought National League South season.

So it’s all to play for and with two more promotion challengers next up, things don’t get any easier for Lee Allinson’s side.

Attendance: 2141

Tudors Man of the Match: Millar Mathews-Lewis but to a man the performances from everyone was superb on the day.