Maidstone United manager George Elokobi and Tonbridge Angels boss Jay Saunders look ahead to the New Year’s Day derby at the Gallagher Stadium
Published: 05:00, 29 December 2023
Maidstone and Tonbridge do it all again at the Gallagher Stadium on New Year’s Day.
The teams drew 1-1 at Longmead on Boxing Day in part one of their festive double-header.
United led through Matt Rush’s 57th-minute strike but Jordan Higgs’ magnificent injury-time volley saw the points shared.
Maidstone have already experienced back-to-back games against the same opposition this season, winning on successive weekends at Torquay in league and FA Cup.
So it’s nothing new to George Elokobi and his players as they set about landing a first National South win in four matches.
“It’s just another game,” said Stones boss Elokobi.
“We’re playing in front of our home crowd and we have to try and give a better performance to get the three points.
“We have to focus on ourselves. We’ve come here, away from home, and we’ve taken a point.
“So we now have to analyse, review and get back to working with our group in training to try and win the second game.
“It’s how the fixture list came out and we knew it was going to be like this at this time of the year.
“It’s important that we now focus on what we’ve done in the first game in terms of the positives and I think there were plenty out on the pitch from our group of players.”
It will be former Maidstone boss Jay Saunders’ first time in the away dugout at the Gallagher Stadium.
He felt the Boxing Day meeting lacked quality, while a small pitch at Whatman Way presents another challenge for a side who like to get the ball out wide.
“At the Gallagher, as I know more than most, it’s a lot smaller than our pitch,” said Saunders.
“It’s a tight pitch and we’ve got to go there and find a way to win.
“We like to get on the ball and make the pitch as big as we can and it’s difficult to do that there because it’s a lot smaller than here and, no disrespect, the surface is probably better here.
“I’m not a fan of the back-to-back games.
“You’ve got other teams like Dover playing Aveley. I don’t know why they don’t mix it up a little bit but it is what it is.”
Brothers Reiss Greenidge and Jordan Greenidge are set to line up against each other again.
Stones defender Reiss came out on top in the first game, with Jordan substituted during the second half.
“It wasn’t Jordan v Reiss, it was Tonbridge against Maidstone,” said Elokobi.
“At the same time, it happens that they play directly opposite each other so it was good to see that battle.
“I thought in terms of Reiss’ quality, he brought it to the table.”
Jordan was kept relatively quiet on Boxing Day but, as Tonbridge’s eight-goal leading scorer, he’s the one to watch.
“Jordan’s better than he showed but so are we as a team, so I’m not blaming him,” said Saunders.
“Back in the day, if I’d been playing against my brother, I probably would have been throwing elbows, and you’d get away with it, but it’s a different game nowadays.”
In a change of arrangements, home fans will be able to buy tickets on the turnstiles. Angels fans must book online.
Kick-off is 3pm.
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Craig Tucker