Maidstone caretaker boss Simon Walton sees his penalty shoot-out woes end in Kent Senior Cup victory over Dartford
15:59, 23 January 2019
updated: 16:01, 23 January 2019
Simon Walton signed off as Maidstone caretaker boss by winning a penalty shoot-out for the first time in his career.
Walton must have feared the worst when Tuesday night's Kent Senior Cup quarter-final at Dartford went to spot-kicks, given his record as a player.
But the former Leeds midfielder experienced that winning feeling with Josh Strizovic denying Dan Johnson as United took the shoot-out 8-7 after a 1-1 draw.
Report: Dartford 1 Maidstone 1
Walton said: "I thought we were going to be there all night.
"I've never taken part in a winning penalty shoot-out. I've had four now and I've lost three, so that was nice to win one.
"It was a good standard of penalties and it was nice for Josh to save the winning penalty."
It wasn't a great game as Maidstone tried to find a way past Dartford's stand-in goalkeeper Ben Greenhalgh, the former United winger taking the gloves after Bailey Vose was sent off early in the second half.
But they got the job done, building on last week's FA Trophy success against Oxford City.
Walton said: It's another win in the cup and we're through to the next round.
"Again, it's a weird game, not the best game anyone's ever seen, but a win's a win.
"It was just a lot of lads playing together who haven't perhaps played as many minutes recently as they'd have liked.
"I said to them before, get out of it personally what you've got to get out of it and some did, some didn't."
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