You would think you would be lucky if your game was the only one to survive a pitch inspection, but Kingstonian suffered a 0-3 defeat against Maidstone United on Saturday.
The match started at a high tempo on a cold but sunny afternoon at Kingsmeadow, with over 600 fans defying the cold to see two teams battling at top of the Ryman League.
Before the game, K’s keeper Rob Tolfrey received an award marking his record 200 appearances for the club.
The first 20 minutes of the match was dominated by Kingstonian, culminating in a 21st minute Ryan Moss shot cannoning just wide the goalpost.
Five minutes later, the K’s created another serious chance, but Andre McCollin directed the ball into the side netting.
As the half went on Maidstone gained the upper hand, but did not manage to score before half time. Both teams seemed unwilling to take any risks, as they did not want to give up their high rankings in the league.
During the second half, the quality of the K’s game seemed to drop with the temperature, as the Stones got stronger and winger Kaiyne Woolery broke the deadlock in the 63rd minute.
Kingstonian replied with two substitutions: Jack Clark left the field for Charlie Knight and Iffy Allen replaced Sam Page.
At this stage of the match there was still hope that the K’s would recover. Both teams created pressure and threatened to score several times.
Maidstone United made their first substitution in the 81st minute with goalscorer Woolery making way for Charley Robertson.
Two minutes later Stones’ Zac Attwood doubled the away side’s advantage and Kingstonian’s chance of taking any points slipped away.
Maidstone’s replacement of Frannie Collin by Jack Harris in the 85th minute marked the start of the away side running the clock down.
As if things could not get any worse for the K’s, the Stones got a penalty after a foul on Harris. Attwood then scored 92nd minute penalty, heaping misery on the home side.
K’s manager Alan Dowson told the Kingstonian FC website: “We need somebody somewhere to stand up and be counted”
K’s are now in fourth place and the Stones are heading the table, following this result.
Image courtesy of: Jonathan Waldheim
