Dumebi Dumaka scored on his debut to give Maidstone a 1-0 win at Bishop’s Stortford on Saturday.

He was thrown straight into the side after signing from Grays on Friday night and made a dream start by heading home the only goal early in the second half.

United made three changes to the side who beat Gosport last weekend, with Tom Mills in for Bobby-Joe Taylor at left-back, Jack Paxman replacing Dan Sweeney in the No.10 role and Dumaka taking Adam Birchall’s place up front.

James Rogers decided to play three days after becoming a dad to twins and, if he was shattered from sleepless nights, it didn’t show.

It was always going to be a battle on an old-school Woodside Park pitch which survived a 9.30am inspection but was hit by more heavy rain before kick-off.

Stortford looked strong up the left - Morgan Ferrier a tricky customer - but Maidstone went on to enjoy the best of the early pressure.

They did the right thing by getting the ball forward quickly but once it was in the Stortford half, Maidstone’s creative players still attempted to play their way through the home defence, with Jack Paxman, Vas Karagiannis and Charles Banya looking bright.

A deflected shot from Karagiannis went wide as Maidstone threatened for the first time after a decent spell of possession before Ferrier came back to life on the left, with no end product.

The pitch came to Stortford’s rescue after 35 minutes when Paxman’s classy pass sent Dumaka through on goal.

The new man eased the ball past keeper Andrew Dawber but it got stuck in the sand in the six-yard box and stayed out.

Shorly afterwards, Healy went close with a header from a Karagiannis corner.

Maidstone were on top after the break and had to wait only three minutes to take the lead, Dumaka swooping to head Paxman’s cross into the bottom corner.

Paxman was having an excellent afternoon - proving he can graft and be effective on poor pitches - and after tracking back to defend he launched a counter-attack that saw Dumaka feed Karagiannis whose 25-yard strike tested Dawber low to his right.

The sand patch came to Maidstone’s aid midway through the second half when Ferrier got the better of Callum Davies and fizzed the ball across the goalmouth, only for it to hold up and prevent Stortford’s runner getting on the end of it.

Stortford then had a strong penalty shout turned down after Davies tangled with Ferrier.

There was another scare moving into the last 10 minutes, Robbie Willmott and Frankie Merrifield carving open the defence only for Ferrier to hit the ball straight at Worgan.

But Maidstone could easily have made it 2-0 seconds later, another Dumaka strike getting stuck in the mud and presenting Dawber with an easy save.

Dumaka then fired over when unmarked after the ball broke from a Karagiannis run.

Maidstone: Worgan, Driver, Mills, Coyle, Davies, Rogers, Banya (Taylor 77mins), Healy, Dumaka, Paxman (Flisher 75mins), Karagiannis. Subs not used: Parry, Bodkin, Birchall.

Attendance: 652.