Beveree Chat

A tough game, but lets hope we can take some confidence from that gutsy performance at Torquay. Maidstone are unbeaten since an opening day defeat to Farnborough, including an impressive win at Dorking.

Who is the new guy on the touchline calling the shots? I lie him!!

HT..Midfield needs to change.. Atkinson playing well but been hung out to dry, he has no support in there, Widdrington and the new lad are passengers

2-0

4-1 down. Poor again, not been in the game at all. Their first and fourth have both came as a result of terrible set pieces from us.

Defence will get blamed but they had a chaotic mess in front of them. Midfield looked disorganised slow and gave the back 5 no protection whatsoever. I thought Atkinson was one of the few to come out of the game with some credit, was he injured when he came off? Widdrington for me is a major disappointment, he just doesn't have the mobility or energy to play centre mid and definitely not the attacking midfield role he had in the first half. Dowson has his work cut out to make this squad successful.

Well.Maidstone aren't a bad side, but we were awful at times today, especially in midfield. Nowhere near enough strength or mobility. This really is going to be one very long season.

Deja vue all over again as they say. As others have highlighted, our midfield is non existent far too often and open to the counter attack. In a way very similar to the opening game at Salisbury. Started OK, lost the ball from our own corner and in two passes we were 1-0 down. Siziba, hit the inside of the post and was unlucky to see the ball cleared away. Maidstone fluffed a couple of easy chances, also hit the post ,as we looked very open at the back but we managed to get to half time just one down. Still in the game. Then as at Salisbury, we conceded within five minutes of the restart having given the ball away in midfield, failed to get in a tackle and then left Gravata completely unmarked to head in from close range. We rallied with a goal from Siziba, bundling in from close range after Sho-Silva's shot was parried. Could we mount a comeback? No. Four minutes later Leahy got his second from another unmarked header. We topped off a poor defensive display with a second break away goal from our own corner. We didn't seem to learn from our previous mistake. Whatever line up we put out we seem to have the same issues time and time again. Lack of pace in midfield, poor marking and far too easy to score against.The lad from Norwich didn't add to anything and after six games of much the same thing, Dowse needs to find some more experience from somewhere. Ince was on the bench but not brought on so I really can't understand why we have him in the squad. Maidstone weren't that great at the back and we had some chances but not much use if goals keep slipping out the back door. 18 in six games. Next up away to Totton.

Time to panic Mr Mainwaring.

Ouch. Don’t get me wrong, Maidstone are a very good side.

However, it was obvious at our last home game that we had a big problem in central midfield. A couple of us mentioned it in this forum.

The funny thing is, I think the back four did okay, considering. And Mike Atkinson had a good game too. Funny to be able to say that in a 1-4 defeat. But the other two in midfield i.e. Toby and whoever accompanies him (it keeps changing every week) have zero mobility. Defensively these two are just spectators. It was so easy for Maidstone to create overloads.

Thought there were good moments but comfortably second best. Midfield is the main source of errors + lack of pace in defence.