Saturday 22nd December 2012 ko 15.00

Isthmian League Division One South

MAIDSTONE UNITED 2 (King 69 A Olorunda 86)

WORTHING 2 (Brown 3og Daniel 55)

Att 1,765

Entry £10

Programme £2

Badge £3

With so much sport falling to the weather, I wanted something that was more or less guaranteed to be taking place. With Maidstone’s new ground having a plastic pitch, the element of doubt was more or less removed. It did leave the vexed question of having to get back to Oxford early enough to attend a Christmas bash, but I spotted a short-cut up a grass bank to get quickly back to my car, parked in a charity car park. The game finished, I made for the bank, slipped, and…. well imagine Wil E Coyote sliding down by his fingernails!

I has to be said that I don’t visit Kent nearly as often as I should. Perhaps its the necessity of driving halfway round the M25, but the town on the Medway is an old battleground, the former mayor Andrew Broughton signed Charles I’s death warrant, and is after all the county town. Famous people hailing from here are Thomas Culpeper, beheaded for adultery with Henry XIII’s 5th wife Katherine Howard, poet Thomas Wyatt, credited with introducing the sonnet into the English language, and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” actor MacKenzie Crook. I wish I’d had enough time to visit the museum of Kent history adjacent to the ground.

There are many reasons to visit Maidstone United, other than more or less guaranteed football. The club can clain to be a former Football League club (1989-1992), but were bankrupted, crippled by the costs of winning their place in the league, and having to play home games at Dartford, their Athletic Ground home, not being deemed suitable for League ties. Land was bought by the club just outside of town, but planning permission was refused, and after talk of moving the club to Newcastle, and merging it with Newcastle Blue Star, themselves now defunct, liquidation soon followed.

The club was quickly reformed as Maidstone Invicta, playing youth football on a pitch behind the MFI where the Athletic Ground once stood, and gradually the club began to work its way back up the footballing pyramid. Soon, the lack to facilities became an issue once again, and with the local council’s reluctance to grant planning permission, groundshares at Sittingbourne and Ashford (Kent) gave the club somewhere to play.

Eventually a former MOD site was acquired close to the town centre, and despite a colony of Greater Crested Newts, the stadium project was given consent, and the Gallagher Stadium opened in July 2012 with a friendly against Brighton & Hove Albion.

The stand-out feature is the 442 seat main stand, which towers over the rest of the ground, with the rather small-looking prefabricated covered terraces behind each goal. You really do forget you’re at a ground staging lower-level Isthmian League football, and in the longer term that is what may cause the club a few problems. With the “Pop” side being on the Medway’s floodplain, building additional spectator accomodation will be difficult. It will be needed too, as the current stadium capacity is 2,226, and with the club topping their division, average attendances are around 1,500. It doesn’t take much imagination to see the club back in the Football League.

My game was a case in point; the seats were long since sold out when I arrived an hour before kick-off, and clearly nervous stewards were retreating to a state of jobsworth pedantry. I was informed that unless I had a pass, plus accreditation from a recognised media organisation, I was not allowed to receive a team sheet. Someone somewhere took a lot of effort writing these rules, and yes, I did get a team sheet!

There were few good vantage points away from the stand, which was a pity since this was an excellent game to watch. Worthing clearly hadn’t read the script, when from their third corner in quick succession, Luke Gedling’s header was turned into his own net by Alex Brown. Maidstone looked lacking in ideas, and although they improved after the break they found themselves two down, Matt Daniel nodding home after keeper Deren Ibrahim could only tip a deflected cross in his direction.

The introduction of Ade Olurunda after an hour gave Maidstone greater impetus, and when Stuart King’s neat lob made it 2-1 you sensed a belief in the home players, that had been lacking previously. A mis-hit cross found Ade Olorunda at the back of the box, and he had enough time to pick his spot before smashing home. The remainder of the time saw continuous home pressure, but there was to be no winner, that would have been rough on the visitors.

I then had a straightforward walk back to the car…. I did make it back for my party though!

Since this will be last game before the big day, I’d like to wish both of my readers a very merry Christmas, and see you somewhere daft afterwards!!