Match Preview

Saturday sees the season's first meeting between the two newly promoted teams

On Saturday, Truro City make the long trip to Maidstone United for the year’s first meeting between the two newly promoted clubs.

Maidstone look like a team on a mission. The Stones returned to their home town in 2012 after 24 years in exile and now play on a 3G pitch at the £2.6m Gallagher Stadium. The first season in their new home finished with promotion to the Ryman Premier and then, in 2014/15, they won automatic promotion to the National League South as champions.

And Maidstone are flying high again this season, second in the league, seven points behind leaders Ebbsfleet and seven ahead of Truro City in eighth place.

They also enjoyed a decent FA Cup run this year, making it to the 1st round proper where they were unlucky to lose by the only goal of the game to a Yeovil Town team which was down to nine men by the end.

Like Truro, undefeated in the last 11 National South games, Maidstone have been on a good run of form since early September. However, a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Maidenhead on Tuesday night brought an end to a 10 game unbeaten league run.

Not surprisingly, the two teams are evenly matched in terms of their recent points records. Over the last eight matches, Maidstone are top of the National League South form table with 19 points but Truro are second with 18. So in that sense, Saturday is a top of the table clash!

However, a closer look at the Stones’ performance this year reveals something unusual. As we near the half way stage of the season, only three teams of the 22 in the National League South have scored fewer goals on average per match than Maidstone. So how on earth are they in second place in the table?

The answer of course is that Maidstone have the league's tightest defence by far this year. The Stones have conceded a miserly 0.6 goals per match compared an average of 1.4 for the National League South as a whole. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise given that in the Ryman Premier last year Maidstone conceded 10 fewer goals than anyone else.

So the message is that, at least going on the season to date, supporters going to a Maidstone match expecting a goal-fest are likely to be disappointed. Indeed, 10 of their 18 League games this year have ended 1-0.

Kudos must therefore go to the Stones’ back line. It’s not surprising that 32 year old goalkeeper Lee Worgan is regarded as one of the best ‘keepers at this level when he’s kept a clean sheet in more than half of this year’s league games. Now in his third season at the Gallagher, Worgan played previously at Wimbledon and then MK Dons before moving to several other Conference clubs. And just two days before Maidstone are due to meet Truro, Worgan has signed a new two year deal with the club.

The partnership between Manny Parry and Jamie Coyle is also seen as a key element in the club’s defensive success.

While he must be happy with the Stones’ defensive record, manager Jay Saunders spoke two weeks ago of his conern over the lack of goalscoring punch.

One issue up front has been the decline in the form of Frannie Collin. The striker, who played a big role in last season’s promotion campaign and whose 29 League goals for the Tonbridge Angels brought him a Conference South Golden Boot in 2011-12, has struggled this season. With Maidstone since the summer of 2013, Collin was sent out on loan in September to give him some game time and has now returned to the club.

Another issue seems to be the failure of the midfield to link up with the front line, particularly target man Jay May. The club’s top scorer last season with 24 goals, has found the going much harder this year. Suspended for Tuesday’s game against Maidenhead, May will be back to face Truro City on Saturday.

Given the lack of goals this year, it’s no surprise that manager Saunders confirmed a week or two ago that the club is actively looking to bring in fresh blood (though no deals have yet been clinched). That will be good news for some of the supporters who have become restless at what they see as the Stones’ less than inspiring brand of football this year.

Fans have described their team’s style this season as “a slow, precise build up game with no end product” and complained that “slow, pedestrian football, with lots of sideways passing, however technically good, is fine for the purists, but won't get fans off their seats.”

Sounds remarkably like the criticism levelled at another club with the initials MUFC, this one under the stewardship of a certain Louis Van Gaal. And that team is also in the top three of its respective league. Funny old game football…

By Colin Bradbury