STONES ARE ON A ROLL TOWARDS WEMBLEY

NATIONAL League strugglers Maidstone United have Wembley in their sights after pulling off a stunning win at Eastleigh, who played the last hour with ten men.

Sha’mar Lawson and Regan Booty put the Stones 2-0 up inside 11 minutes and Roarie Deacon and Jerome Binnom-Williams added second half-goals after the hosts had skipper Aaron Martin sent off.

Managerless Maidstone haven’t won a National League match since late November but caretaker boss George Elokobi, in only his sixth match in charge, appears to be breathing new life into the Kent side.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” he said. “This was an outstanding performance with the players carrying out our tactical plan to perfection.

“The players fought like warriors, with everyone putting in a fantastic shift. They all did their bit, digging in when they had to. The performance was full of character.”

Eastleigh looked off the pace from the start with Maidstone almost scoring in the fifth minute when Booty hit the base of the post after turning on Deacon’s pass.

Moments later, Eastleigh paid the penalty for their complacent start with the pacey Jack Barham working hard to play the ball to Lawson on the edge of the box. His first-time strike flew past Joe McDonnell.

Eastleigh, unbalanced by defensive absentees, ought to have equalised when Danny Whitehall released

Alfie Lloyd, but the QPR loanee wasted the chance as goalkeeper Dan Barden saved with his outstretched legs.

It proved a critical moment for Eastleigh as Maidstone doubled their lead from a short corner – Deacon and Barham combining to set up Booty.

Eastleigh’s woes were compounded in the 31st minute when skipper Martin was sent off, booked twice inside five minutes.

Spitfires manager

Lee Bradbury withdrew midfielder Jake Hesketh to shore up his defence but the tie was effectively all over seven minutes after the break with Maidstone scoring a third from another set-piece.

Deacon exchanged passes from a short corner with Booty before the latter cut inside, virtually unchallenged, and lashed into the far bottom corner.

As the Eastleigh fans headed for the exits, so the travelling Stones chanted “Wembley” – and who could blame them after Deacon fed Binnom-Williams to bend the ball beautifully into the top corner for his second goal in as many weeks.

Bradbury lamented: “We’ve beaten Southend United and Woking in the past few games, but we dropped our guard and our standards against Maidstone, who thoroughly deserved to win. We were complacent. It seemed half our side thought they only had to turn up to win.”