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Sport

Maidstone United manager George Elokobi gives his verdict on 1-1 draw at Yeovil Town

By: Craig Tucker ctucker@thekmgroup.co.uk

Published: 08:10, 20 August 2023

George Elokobi described Maidstone’s National League South draw at Yeovil Town as a fantastic point.

The game finished 1-1 with Levi Amantchi’s first Stones goal cancelled out by Rhys Murphy in the closing stages.

Maidstone United manager George Elokobi. Picture: Steve Terrell

Elokobi’s side held their own against a team widely expected to battle it out with Torquay for the championship.

Maidstone, completing the trio of relegated sides in the division, have barely been mentioned in the same breath.

But they were a match for the Glovers at Huish Park, keeping the home side quiet for long spells, and they might even have won it.

mpu1

“It’s a fantastic point away from home,” said boss Elokobi.

“In my opinion, my boys did ever so well today coming to a club the size of Yeovil, the budget they’ve got here and the players they’ve got in.

“Our players have just played their hearts out and followed the game plan to a man.

“We talked about personalities and we talked about being bold, having characters in the team, in the squad.

“The way they play, they like to build up attacks but they can mix it up as well with the long throw-ins, so in order to stay in the game we had to make sure we were composed and patient with our defending.

“We’ve seen that from Braintree (2-1 win on Tuesday night) and we followed that through today and it could have been easily us taking three points home but we’ll settle for the draw.

mpu2

“It’s disappointing conceding late in the game but again we have to look at restarts, we have to look at organisation because that’s what wins you games and that’s what loses you games but we stuck to the task.”

Lucas Covolan made a brilliant save from Morgan Williams’ header to keep Maidstone level at half-time - a key moment in the game.

The visitors went on to lead through Amantchi’s header and the hosts seemed to be out of ideas before Murphy’s leveller.

Report: Yeovil 1-1 Maidstone

“That’s why we brought Lucas to the club,” said Elokobi.

“That’s why we waited that long, to have a keeper of his calibre, to pull off world-class saves like that and to keep us in the game at the break.

“Coming in 0-0 gave us a chance to pass on our tactical points to our players to ensure we come out in the second half and be more aggressive with our press, be more positive but also have the balance and cover behind the ball.

“We spoke about attacking with six players and we saw that, making sure we are organised behind the ball with the defenders and at least one midfielder, and I thought our pressing was quite good.”

Striker Amantchi had only been on the pitch three minutes when he followed up Lamar Reynolds’ header from Sam Corne’s corner to give Maidstone the lead.

He showed what he was about at both ends of the pitch.

Elokobi said: “The first thing Levi did when he came on was to head the ball out of the box to ensure we didn’t concede from a corner.

“That shows you he was switched on, he was ready.

“He’s been dying to score that first goal and I’m happy that he’s got that on game four.”

Maidstone switched to a back four at Huish Park with Reiss Greenidge left out as a precaution after feeling his hip at Braintree.

Sam Bone moved into central defence, partnering George Fowler.

“Reiss was rested for this game,” said Elokobi.

“We’ve got to be mindful because of the injury he had last season, and he’s an international that’s played a lot of games.

“He felt something on his hip on Tuesday, so we took him off, and we have to ensure we look after him.

“It’s a long old season and we can’t take too much risk on our players, so we gave him the weekend off to recuperate.”

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