Maidstone United finished their debut regular season in the National League South where they had been for most of the season – safely within the confines of the top five and the Play Off places.

Even a disappointing 1-1 draw against Bishop’s Stortford couldn’t hide the local’s joy that that Jay Saunders and his side are now “officially” just three games from claiming a place in the National League Premier Division next season.

Their challenge now is a home and away tie at one of the most westerly outposts of the Football Pyramid – Truro City – with the away leg coming up on Wednesday evening.

On the opening day of the season when the Stones won at the newly crowned Champions Sutton United, the Play Offs were but a dream to Saunders – a point he conceded after the game.

“I remember at the start of the season saying to Bill Williams that I thought we had a chance of Play Offs and he gave me a rueful smile” the Stones boss said.

“I thought that what we had could be good enough but never in my wildest dreams did I think we could do it with a month to spare!  But you have to say that they’re there on merit and now we have a terrific chance.”

“We’re effectively now down to a three game season where the players know if we get through against Truro we’re in a one game Final and anything can happen and they’ll have the chance to finish what they’ve been building all season – we haven’t been out of the top five for months, now we have the chance to finish what we’ve started!”

The game itself saw the Stones boss make five changes to his starting side in preparation to Wednesday’s trip to Truro as 2,549 piled into the Gallagher Stadium to celebrate the Stones achievements and look for their heroes to send them into post season in style – sadly the majority would have been disappointed as the home side huffed and puffed but really didn’t deserve any more than the point they got as despite dominating possession, the Stones created very little overall.

“Today was good because it gave some of the boy’s important minutes,” Saunders admitted after the game.

“Jamie Coyle, Joe Healy, Callum Driver all needed playing time going into the Play Offs which they all got and all came through I’m pleased to say now going into next week, I’ve got a fully fit squad that hopefully won’t need too much lifting as the last month or so has been tough.”

“The players have known that we made the Play Offs for a month and it has been tough to keep them completely motivated especially as there was little chance of us going any higher or lower than third.”

Dumebi Dumaka almost gave the Stones the perfect start but his driven shot inside the opening minute brought a fine save out of Stortford keeper Tom Lovelock with Jack Richards unfortunate not to mark his debut with a goal by turning the rebound home. That was one of the few highlights in a desperately disappointing opening 45 minutes!

The visitors took the lead with their first real attack (and possibly the only attack that was to test Stones keeper and skipper for the day Lee Worgan) when they were awarded a thirteenth minute penalty when referee Da Costa pointed to the spot after Manny Parry was adjudged to have handled an awkward bouncing cross on the edge of the box.

Elliot Buchanan duly accepted the gift sending Worgan the wrong way from the spot as he buried the spot kick into the corner of the net.

The Stones then squandered a great chance when Joe Healy volleyed wide from the edge of the box after Vas Karagiannis had brilliantly centred from the right after his initial efforts had been blocked and that chance wise at least was that as the first half came to a very quiet finish!

The Stones came roaring out of the blocks after half time and from a corner Jamie Coyle, playing his first game since the end of February, turned Healy’s header goal bound and it seemed to hit a Stortford hand as the ball deflected wide of the post – referee Da Costa though was unmoved!

Saunders’ side though were not to be denied and seven minutes into the second half Healy was able to sweep the ball home after Alex Flisher’s long throw into the box was inadvertently steered into Healy’s path by a Stortford defender – the Maidstone man adjusted brilliantly to score despite the best efforts of keeper Lovelock.

The home side were then dominant for the next few minutes but only had one real chance of note as  half time substitute (and birthday boy) Jay May glanced a header just over from Bobby-Joe Taylor’s free kick.

May then was denied by a fabulous tackle by De’Reece Vanderhyde when the Maidstone man raced onto a long through ball, and looked destined to score – the defender’s challenge though was timed to perfection and the chance had gone.

Late on May was denied a second for the Stones as he battled through only to be denied by the legs of Lovelock as the game petered out as what in the whole was a disappointing game that would quickly be consigned to the history books – albeit not in too many books as many of the two and a half thousand crowd will probably not remember this 90 minutes for too long.

But as Jay Saunders admitted, the real business starts again on Wednesday, in deepest darkest Cornwall…

MAIDSTONE UNITED – Lee Worgan, Callum Driver, Bobby-Joe Taylor, Jamie Coyle (Callum Davies 73), Manny Parry, Joe Healy, Jack Paxman, Alex Flisher, Dumebi Dumaka (Jay May HT), Jack Richards, Vas Karagiannis (Matt Bodkin 68)

Subs – Charles Banja, Dan Sweeney

BISHOPS STORTFORD – Tom Lovelock, Robbie Willmott, Johnny Herd, Alli Abdullahi, Kenzer Lee, De’Reece Vanderhyde, Corby Moore, Anthony Church, Elliot Buchanan, Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson (Mikel Suarez 59), Frankie Merrifield (Ashley Miller 73)

Subs – Josh Ekim, Byron Lawrence, Anthony Furlonge

REFEREE – A de Costa

ASSISTANTS – J Few and D Hanna