With the inclement weather around today, I decided to play it safe today and visit Maidstone United's spanking brand new ground, complete with it's 3G pitch, in order to get my pre-Christmas football fix. I wasn't the only groundhopper present as this was the only game in the entire three divisions of the Isthmian League to go ahead.
Maidstone United are a continuation of the old Maidstone United, who were members of the Football League between 1989 and 1992, and who were forced out of the league through bankruptcy on the eve of the 1992/93 season (coincidentally the first season of the Premier League).
The re-formed club began in the Kent league in 1993 and over the intervening years have climbed up to the Isthmian League, where they are today in Division One South.
Maidstone's original home Athletic Ground on London Road (now a retail park) did not come up to Football League ground grading requirements so the club relocated to Dartford's Watling Street Stadium in 1987. Maidstone bought the ground but when the proverbial hit the fan in 1992 the ground was sold to pay off debts, leaving both clubs homeless.
After subsequent ground shares at Sittingbourne and Ashford, it has taken Maidstone until 2012 to finally return to the town, when the Gallagher Stadium was opened in August with a friendly versus Brighton and Hove Albion, watched by a crowd of 2,226.
There was another bumper crowd present today and they were treated to thrilling encounter and Maidstone came from two goals down to salvage a point, and stretch their unbeaten league run to 14 games.
An Alex Brown own goal (4) gave The Rebels and early lead before Matt Daniel (55) doubled the advantage for the visitors.
Maidstone, with effectively nothing to lose, went for it and threw caution to the wind. Stuart King (69) halved the deficit before substitute Ade Olorunda (85) levelled things up.
No visit to Maidstone would be complete without visiting some the town's excellent GBG pubs and I'm happy to report that The Volunteer Rifles and The Flowerpot were in excellent form...Merry Christmas!!
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