FINAL SCORE:
Jaffers.........6
AFC Maidstone...0


By far the worst the Stones have played this season.
AFC set out to pass the ball, and were doing so with reasonable success. Ryan tried to weive his way through a solid defence, but the best chance came on 5 minutes when a powerful Ryan volley was well saved. Prior to this a counter-attack led to Jaffers taking the lead. After some neat passing which left the Stones defence in tatters, a man was free to put the ball past a disparing Cope. Cleisham tried to put them back on level terms, as he was about to shot he had the ball taken away by a sliding tackle (illegal at 5-a-side level). The free-kick was wasted as Ryan had no-one to pass too. Cope has earlier been keeping the score down, saving a few efforts with his knees. Epps held his hand up and took the blame for the second goal in the tenth minute, perhaps if he had got back in time it would have been prevented. Half-time: 2-0.
The Stones were being forced to play deep in their half. Robin was trying long-shots but delayed his shots for a fraction too long. Epps continue to harass the oppoisition down the left-wing, but to no avail. With the Jaffers playing 4 up-front, the Stones were desperately trying to clear the ball whenever possible. Sam make his comeback after a 4 week lay-off and played his part with some vital blocks and clearances. Pilcher had a torrid time; whenever Cope threw it to him, he tried to control it with the side of his foot then flick it off the wall witht eh outside of his boot. He tried and failed to this several times and gifted Jaffers the ball. He had one of the best chances shortly after the third goal, a long-range (toe-punted) effort from a Ward pass went inches over the top right-hand corner of the goal. They had very few chances, what with Jaffers superb attacking playing and the poor service to Ryan. A 6-0 thrashing in the end, but against the leagues best team.


TEAM: Cope; Spencer (Pilcher 5), Epps, Cleisham (Ward 15); R.Charman (S.Charman 14).

Manager comments:
"What can I say? We were playing the best team in the league, were doing quite well for the opening 12 minutes but collapsed in the second half. I'm disappointed with the result and the performance was probably the worst yet this season. We all made mistakes, and were guilty of holding on to the ball when it would have been better to pass. Cope has been suffering from a recurrance of a hand injury that has dogged him since the middle of last season, while the two-week lay-off has kept us out of practice. I felt sorry for Ryan because he was isolated on his own up-front. I am especially disappointed with myself because my distribution under pressure was poor, I made a few good passes but only when I had time. Its back to square one, but I'm not pressing the panic button yet because we won't play a better team this season."