Saturday the 11th of August see’s FC Halifax Town continue their National League campaign as they welcome Kent side Maidstone United to the MBi Shay Stadium hoping to continue their positive start to the season.
Both sides had a mixed pre-season with Town succumbing to a few defeats against high profile teams such as Bolton Wanderers and Port Vale.
As well as giving a good account of themselves with an impressive 7-1 win away at Brighouse Town as well as defeating Colville Town 3-1 away.
Maidstone United also endured a mixed preseason with the visitors losing 3-1at home to big spending Billericay Town and drawing away to local Kent rivals Sevenoaks. They finally produced a win in their final pre-season game with an impressive 4-1 win at home to London side Dulwich Hamlet.
The visitors found themselves experiencing a disappointing end to last season as The Stones saw themselves finish in 19th place in the National League. The unfruitful end started with a home loss to Hartlepool United as they found themselves on the receiving end of a 2-1 defeat.
The poor form continued with another 2-1 loss this time at the hands of Dagenham and Redbridge as Maidstone found themselves succumbing to the defeat in Essex. The final game of last season saw little improvement as they were able to muster a 0-0 draw away at Guiseley.
FC Halifax Town also endured a disappointing end to last season with no win coming in the final three games, the poor end started as they drew away to Saturday’s opponents Maidstone United, this was followed by a 2-0 home defeat to Tranmere Rovers. Finally, The Shaymen found themselves with a glum trip back up north after a 1-0 defeat on the Devonshire coast at the hands of Torquay United.
Both sides have however found themselves with much more enjoyable starts to the 2018/19 National League campaign under their belts.
The Shaymen put in two impressive performances to secure two back to back 2-0 wins in their opening games of the season.
The first consisted of an away trip down to Essex to take on newly promoted Braintree Town, Jonathon Edwards put Town ahead firing home just before the break on 43 minutes, before Nathan Clarke powered home a header in the second half to secure the points and leave Town with an enjoyable trip back to West Yorkshire.
The Shaymen continued their good start to the campaign with a comfortable 2-0 win over Barrow A.F.C as they tried to cause an upset at the MBi Shay. However, it was new signing and pre-season star Dayle Southwell who put Halifax in front before skipper Matty Brown headed home a Ben Tomlinson header to make sure the points where safe for Town and left Ian Evatt’s men heading back to Cumbria empty handed.
Maidstone United have also had much more positive start to the new season then they had in the back end of the last.
This started with a 1-1 draw at home to Hartlepool United where the Stones gave a good account of themselves as a Blair Turgott penalty was enough to see the points shared on their opening day.
Their second game of the season brought United their first win as they like Halifax the week before headed down to Essex but on this case to face Dagenham and Redbridge and found themselves leaving with a 2-1 win back to Kent. Blair Turgott scored the two goals to secure the points adding to his first goal from the opening day, he may provide a threat to the Halifax backline and Maidstone United look to continue their good form.
After their meeting on Saturday Maidstone United host Leyton Orient whilst FC Halifax Town travel to big spending Salford City.
Jack Green
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