Our losing streak continues after we were handed another slender loss after Maidstone United left the Bob Lucas Stadium with a 1-0 victory on Tuesday night.
In an almost groundhog-day situation, this is our fifth consecutive loss, all of which from a one-goal deficit.
The recent run of results are made all the more frustrating from the incidents in the games that could have swung the outcomes the other way.
On this occasion, it was a penalty miss by Brandon Goodship, our 100-goal man sending “The Stones’” shot-stopper Alexis Andre Junior right, but sending the ball too far left in the process.
Any points achieved against the second-most in-form side in the league would have been impressive; going into Tuesday the Kent outfit, led by ex-Wolverhampton Wanderers defender George Elokobi, had only just lost their first in 19 league matches.
Their fine form was particularly prevalent in the first half, Raphe Brown opening the scoring in the 26 minute, either side of several chances that could have put the visitors well and truly out of sight.
Though we pushed forward more ourselves after the break, Calvin Brooks’ late red card perhaps summed up another disappointing day for us.
Unsurprisingly, Elokobi’s side remain near the top of the table, now just one point above league leaders Boreham Wood.
Meanwhile our rock-bottom status remains, as we still lie 12 points off safety, now with 19 more games to go.
BRILLIANT BUSEY KEEPS US IN THE GAME
Ahead of the game, Warren made three changes to our line-up, bringing the much-missed Goody and Tom Bearwish, alongside newcomer Harrison Day, who’s loan signing was announced before the match.
Though by definition a one-goal deficit is a close scoreline, and an unlucky penalty from Goody was inches away from changing things, in truth we had our goalkeeper, who has luckily extended his loan until the end of the season, to thank for his series of saves towards the end of the half.
However, The Stones’ first chance just two minutes in actually beat Busey, as a cross was sent in from the right-hand side towards the head of Aaron Blair, who was just a few yards out.
But luckily Blair’s header also beat the goal, as he sent the ball high and wide in what appeared to be an early let-off.
Tom Bearwish, making his first start under Warren Feeney, then fired wide on the edge of the box three minutes later.
His presence in our side most certainly has been missed, a view echoed by our manager this week.
But only six minutes later saw the visitors have another close call via a close-range chance, this time through Sam Corne, who was only a few yards out when he stretched his leg to Sol Wanjau-Smith’s byline cross, an effort that perhaps should have hit the target but instead awkwardly bounced wide.
Leo Hamblin then tried an audacious attempt from approx. 30 yards one minute after the quarter-hour mark, which saw him unexpectedly send a looping ball to Junior’s goal, which landed marginally above the crossbar.
But just two minutes later Elokobi’s side struck back when Ben Brookes whipped in a dangerous cross from the left-hand side into Blair, who was put off by Jordon Thompson just about enough to fumble a shot into Busey’s hands.
Brookes then sent in an equally inviting cross from the other side in the 26th minute, the ball this time meeting long-term Stones’ centre-back Brown, whose header was powerful enough to bounce off Busey’s hand and into the bottom-left corner.
With just under 20 minutes of regular time remaining in the first half, we found ourselves 1-0 down with a familiar mountain to climb.
But frustratingly for us the opportunities for the visitors were just beginning, as Busey would find out.
After they began passing the ball around the edge of the box, ex-Terra Charlie Seaman curled towards the right post, with Busey able to push the ball away with both hands.
However, our keeper would have more work to do, then having to keep out a powerful close-range thump from Bivesh Gurung, followed by a scrambled poke from Wanjau-Smith.
After being unable to prevent Brown from putting The Stones in front, our star shot-stopper’s boldness stopped them from extending their lead.
Though if he thought his work would be done there, he would soon have to think again.
First catching Gurung’s low but powerful strike on the edge of the box, our player between the sticks was forced to deal with Blair’s across-goal thump as he managed to hold onto an awkward bounce following his initial save.
MORE MISERY
We were due some chances of our own, and could have created one just four minutes into the second half had Ibrahim Meite not been taken down off the ball, whilst we were on the break, by a falling Stones defender.
Though the referee saw nothing in that challenge, they would have no choice but to make a choice over the next major incident.
Day was taken off for Ben Greenwood in the 54th minute, and by the time the game reached the hour-mark Ben’s impact had already been felt.
After Mal Linton had managed to keep the ball just inside the box, he laid the ball off to our recent sub, who wrongfooted one opposing defender, before being undoubtedly tripped over by another very shortly after.
Penalty.
Just what we needed.
After we had managed to prevent Elokobi’s side from extending their lead in the first half, there was now a massive opportunity for us to squash that lead altogether.
But as Goody, usually so reliable in front of goal, stepped up, his powerful kick was sent wide of the target; we remained a goal down.
Goes to show that even the best miss, eh?
But our nearly moment appeared to awaken something within our players, as Jake McCarthy’s edge-of-box volley fizzed just left of Andre Jr’s goal five minutes after our penalty miss.
The midfield veteran threatened the Maidstone goalkeeper again with another stellar strike just a few minutes later, weaving through the opposing defence before firing a well-drilled low shot towards the shot-stopper’s scrambling hands.
The Weymouth hero didn’t stop there either, as he blasted two more deflected strikes, the final of which fell straight into Ibrahim’s path.
Though the new forward was bravely tackled by George Fowler inside the box before he could get a shot underway.
But, just as our dominance had been stamped on the game, Calv collided with Gurung mid-air as both players appeared to win a header.
Gurung, however, came out of the clash worse off, as the referee deemed Calv’s part in the challenge serious enough to send him off and reduce us to 10 men for the remaining six minutes.
The red card appeared to kill momentum during the game’s final moments, as were ultimately confined to another loss which keeps us bottom.
