..

..

..

I have seen County play two iterations of Maidstone United. Three games against the club which had a brief stay in the Football League in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They then disappeared in a financial maelstrom and a reformed club visited EP for an FA Trophy game in early 2019. There has only been one away game for me, and that wasn’t even in Maidstone. By the time it came for a trip towards the tail end of the 1990/91 season they had been playing at Watling Street Dartford for a couple of seasons.

The game itself was on a Wednesday evening and sufficiently far flung to dissuade all bar a small band of County followers making their way down to Kent. With 15 games of the season left we were 14 points adrift of leaders Darlington, (albeit with 3 games in hand). Any aspiration of getting into the promotion spots demanded 3 points that evening, but the portents weren’t good. After a 3-0 win at Lincoln, (which saw a debut for Kevin Francis), there had been three more games which had harvested only two points, (from home draws against Cardiff and Scarborugh), which sandwiched a single goal defeat at Feethams. A win was imperative.

Francis had been injured and we had not seen him for a couple of weeks and he was again missing at Watling Street, as was Andy Kilner. But as it turned out the game was pivotal in County’s season. From a position of 8th place at kick-off, the win was the first of 11 in 15 games which culminated in a promotion sealed with a 5-0 home win over Scunthorpe on the final day. It was marked by a tremendous goal from Paul A Williams after strikes from Neil Matthews and Chris Beamont. Some may suggest that William’s goal was the precursor to a surprising move to West Brom 15 days later, although a wonder goal against Rochdale 2 days before his move had probably more significance. The move might have been surprising but the fee was even more so.

So the win pushed us 4 places up the table. From there it was a whirlwind end to the season, which ended in joyous promotion scenes after the hammering of Scunthorpe. Matthews added 10 more goals and with Francis starting to make his mark, (with 5 strikes), we were well on the way to 3rd Tier football after a gap of 21 years.

With Maidstone’s financial oblivion it looked as though this would be the last encounter. However, some 28 years later the phoenix club which had returned to its home town roots visited EP in an FA Trophy tie. It ended in a draw with a replay in Kent 3 days later. Sadly health grounds prevented me making this trip, which was a pity as it would have been a “new ground”, (The Gallagher Stadium), and a victory to boot! I did however, make it to the reborn Dartford, and their new home at Princes Park for a Conference game only a matter of weeks before the drop into the 6th Tier.

..

Memories of a single trip to Watling Street

..

THE GAMES

..

Where the date is in bold click for highlights of the game

..

	Date	Venue	Ground	Competition		F	A	Att:
Sat	27/01/90	h	Edgeley Park	Barclays League Division 4 (Tier 4)	L	1	2	4,161
Mon	01/10/90	h	Edgeley Park	Barclays League Division 4 (Tier 4)	W	1	0	3,207
Wed	13/03/91	a	Watling Street	Barclays League Division 4 (Tier 4)	W	3	2	1,412
Sat	23/02/19	h	Edgeley Park	FA Trophy (Quarter Final)	D	1	1	2,585

..

Back to Opposition Team Index