Olorunda keeps Maidstone flying high

Maidstone retained their five-point lead with four unanswered goals at Walton & Hersham. Ade Olurunda (pictured) scored twice in the last three minutes of the first half and Stuart King added a third five minutes after the restart.

King also helped himself to the fourth with 12 minutes left, his 21st league goal including 15 before his switch from Folkestone.

Dulwich remained five points behind with three games in hand after their 3-0 win at Ramsgate. Ellis Green put them ahead on the half-hour, Erhun Oztumer added another before half-time and Danny Carr wrapped it up in the 56th minute.

Leatherhead, who are fourth, fared even better as Allan Tait fired a hat-trick in their 5-0 romp at Whitstable. The home side kept it tight for almost an hour, restricting Tanners to Tait’s 14th-minute effort.

Tommy Hutchings nabbed the second on 57 minutes and his side took command. Tait quickly made it 3-0, Elliott Thompson fired home from 25 yards and Tait completed his treble with five minutes left.

Third-placed Faversham lost ground to their rivals with a 1-1 draw at Eastbourne, and it took a last-minute goal by Matt Bourne to earn that single point. Until then it looked as if Ross Treleaven’s 15th-minute strike would lift the hosts into the thick of the play-off race.

As it is, Eastbourne are five points behind Sittingbourne, who reclaimed fifth spot with a 5-2 home win over bottom club Three Bridges.

Two goals from Ryan Golding in the first 15 minutes set them on their way and it was 4-0 by the half-hour mark though Ashley Baverstock and Ryan Cooper. Ellis Hooper opened Bridges’ account with a 32nd-minute header and the goals then dried up until the 90th minute, when Tim Rivers made it 4-2 with a penalty.

Bridges, still six points adrift at bottom with only ten games left, then conceded a penalty which Golding converted to complete his hat-trick and take his league tally to 23, two ahead of King in the golden boot race.

The Brickies climbed above Crawley Down, who lost 1-0 at home to Merstham. Fabio Saraiva scored after 63 minutes and the Anvils wasted a chance to equalise when Jamie Cade missed a penalty.

Hythe stayed in the thick of things, though they had to defend well to prevent bottom-but-one visitors Walton Casuals answering the 37th-minute strike by Brendon Cass which provided the game’s only goal.

Folkestone are right in the hunt as well, and would have been level on points with Sittingbourne had they not conceded a last-minute equaliser at Worthing.

A foul on Johan Ter Horst allowed Darren Smith to put the visitors ahead with a 37th-minute penalty and they stayed in front until the death, when Steve Metcalf headed home a Jamie Brotherton corner to make it 1-1. Rebels had been unlucky earlier when Paul Kennett hit the bar and Brotherton struck a post from the rebound.

The other three games in the division failed to produce a goal and, indeed, a quarter of the games in the whole league – eight out of 32 – ended in scoreless frustration.
Tooting had the better of things in their home game with Herne Bay, though Byron Walker missed a late chance for the visitors.

Midweek hat-trick hero Laurent Hamici and experienced Rob Haworth wasted good opportunities to give Chipstead a home win over Burgess Hill, while a post denied Bashiru Alimi of Corinthian-Casuals, who also had a late goal disallowed as they were held by visiting Horsham.