Maidstone come from behind to see off sorry Cards

THIS crucial relegation six-pointer lived up to its billing as Woking’s defence “melted” leaving Jamar Loza to bag a hat-trick, inspiring Maidstone United to turnaround a two-goal deficit.

It all started so well for the Cards, who went ahead through Delano Sam-Yorke and then Jamie Lucas after 25 minutes.

But Loza’s excellent goal gave the Stones hope and then he fired in two more after the break before Yemi Odubade secured the result.

Woking have now conceded 73 league goals and their second-half collapse unsurprisingly left boss Garry Hill fuming.

“In the second half the players melted. Couldn’t handle it. Couldn’t handle the pressure. Melted. We collapsed,” he said.

“It’s a very, very disappointing afternoon for us. We’ve given poor goals away in a big, big way.

“You’ve got give credit to Maidstone, but our second-half showing wasn’t anything like good enough.”

Maidstone’s Joe Pigott had his bicycle kick tipped over by Michael Poke early on before Stones keeper Lee Worgan saved well from Kane Ferdinand.

A SamYorke goal was inevitable, having spent two successful months on loan at Maidstone at the start of the year, and he slotted home the opener despite looking suspiciously offside.

Buoyed by the goal, Woking found themselves two ahead when Lucas cleverly faked to shoot with his right before scoring inside Worgan’s far post.

Maidstone soon hit back, though, as Loza superbly found the top corner on the counter attack. Poke managed to claw an effort off the line after half-time, and then the the Cards were made to rue Keiran Murtagh’s miss from close range. Loza netted his second from inside the Woking area and soon claimed the match ball, after the home side’s defence failed to clear, and the 22-year-old swivelled to score. Substitute Odubade wrapped up the points with yet another strike from close range as the Cards’ suicidal defending continued. Delighted Stones manager Jay Saunders said: “We said at half-time if we could get the next goal, we felt we could go on and win the game. I’m delighted for Jam to get the hat-trick, he took his goals well. They’re big goals for us, it was a big game but there’s still a long way to go.”