Barnet 4 Maidstone United 3 match report: Four defeats in a row for the Stones

Maidstone suffered a fourth successive National League defeat when they lost at Barnet.

Both sides went into the game in poor form, winless in five, but it was the hosts’ night.

Jack Barham cancelled out Rob Hall’s opener as the teams went in level at half-time.

Dale Gorham and Ben Wynter gave the Bees a 3-1 lead and while Regan Booty replied, Nicke Kabamba gave the Bees breathing space in added time.

An own goal with seconds remaining gave Maidstone a glimmer of hope but they wound up empty-handed.

Maidstone switched to a back three for the first time this season in a bid to change their fortunes.

Designed to shore up a leaky defence, the move also allowed Hakan Hayrettin to get two men up front.

The Stones barely had time to find their feet before falling behind to a lousy opener in just the third minute.

Having seen Boreham Wood score direct from a cross on Saturday, the same thing happened again, albeit from a different angle, with Hall’s ball in appearing to evade everyone on its way in.

The benefit of having two up showed when Maidstone levelled in the 11th minute after James Alabi ran on to Sam Corne’s long ball and forced his way into the box.

Keeper Laurie Walker came out to block, the Barnet defence made a mess of clearing the loose ball and Barham pounced.

Maidstone’s approach was pretty simple - win the ball and get it forward as quickly as possible to Barham and Alabi.

It was no bad plan against a Bees side with a makeshift defence, including ex-Stones midfielder Michael Phillips filling in at centre-half, and it certainly had the potential to cause problems.

The Bees were pretty direct themselves but ran into an inspired Joe Ellul in the first half.

He’d been a doubt to play after going off injured at