Young Stones See Off Chester To Win Academy Cup Final

Jack-Quwarn Francis-Manu takes you through the action...

Maidstone United manager Billy Jones said, “We worked very hard, we weren’t our best today at all but we did what we had to do and that’s to come away with a victory and back to back cup winners sounds very good.”

Maidstone opened the scoring just six minutes in as a high press from Aston Mitford caused them to win the ball. Three successive passes found Mitford down the line who attempted to cross, however the pass deflected off the Chester defender and into the back of the net.

Straight after, Chester fought back and attacked with a nice worked play and cross into the box but nothing came of it.

The first penalty shout of the game came for Maidstone as a quick one two between Mitford and Elliott Wenham led to a through ball into Paddy Flynn who fell inside the box. The referee dismissed the claims and the play continued.

Not long after, Chester hit back again, this time with Ryan Atkinson who took the ball around the keeper and got his shot away but Alfee Wincott made himself the last man and saved the shot with an excellent clearance to keep his side ahead.

Chester continued trying to find an equaliser but a good defensive display from the Maidstone players kept them ahead going into the break.

In the second half, Chester came close to levelling the score as they got a shot at goal but it was quickly cleared.

In the 54th minute, a second penalty shout for Maidstone came as a pass through the lines found Flynn as he drove into the box and was brought down, once again the referee dismissed the claims.

Chester pulled out all the stops and kept pushing with two more close chances to score but they were unable to capitalise on their efforts as they couldn’t find the back of the net.

After five additional minutes, Maidstone won the game and were crowned champions of the Academy Cup.

Jones praised his players' performance as they became back to back champions. “It’s resilience I think, they’re a group that want to work hard, they’re a group that want to learn and want to get better and better. Today proved that they had to really dig in against a really good Chester side and to be fair they caused us problems and we had some chances but I’m just really pleased for the group.”

Chester manager Mike Allcock reflected on his team's efforts as they finished in second place. “I can’t believe it was only one nil, just one goal in it. I thought both goalkeepers were outstanding, they took their chance and we haven’t so it’s just fine margins which it will be in a cup final.”

IMAGE - ROGER KING