Weston-super-Mare 3 Maidstone United 0 match report: Jordan Higgs sent off as 10-man Stones beaten by National League South play-off rivals

Maidstone’s National League South play-off hopes are back in the balance after losing at Weston.

The Stones, with manager George Elokobi missing the match through illness, were looking to move seven points clear of the Seagulls in the race for a top-seven finish.

But there’s now just a point between them - the sides seventh and eighth - after goals from Sam Pearson, Luke Coulson and Pedro Borges won it for the hosts.

United also had midfielder Jordan Higgs sent off before half-time, at 1-0 down, for denying a goalscoring opportunity although he could perhaps count himself unlucky.

Tayt Trusty came in for Bivesh Gurung in the only change to the starting XI who had won three successive games.

The Stones struggled get going in the Somerset sunshine with Weston comfortably the better side in the first half.

Skipper Coulson, the former Ebbsfleet and Dartford midfielder who scored an extraordinary goal from his own penalty box last weekend, was having another good day.

He made the Seagulls tick as they took the game to Maidstone, the hosts winning the midfield battle and working the ball into good crossing positions down both flanks but particularly down the left.

That was the source of Weston’s sixth-minute opener with play spread left to Coulson and when he picked out the overlapping run of Jordan Bastin, Pearson pounced for a neat finish at the near post.

Maidstone’s best opening of the first half came shortly after falling behind but Sol Wanjau-Smith, having been involved in the build-up, was denied by keeper Max Harris after getting in the box to meet Sam Corne’s cross.

Long clearances gave Aaron Blair something to chase, and he ran as hard as ever, but there was little happening for the visitors.

Weston had a second goal