A jubilant Danny Kedwell ended two years of taunts from Maidstone fans with his 77th minute goal and then declared he was prepared to keep driving himself into the ground for the Fleet cause.
“I’m fit as a fiddle, I feel fit,” he told BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster. “I know I don’t look it out there physique-wise but listen, I work my butt off for the team and for the gaffer and fans and until my legs fall off, I ain’t giving up!”
The Fleet squad’s current top scorer, with 33 in his time at the club, also hoped the strike went some way towards making up for his now infamous penalty miss in the promotion final. “It was lovely,” Kedwell said. “Especially after what happened two years ago. So it was nice to get my revenge and obviously I’ve got stick from all their fans for missing that penalty for two years so it was nice to get it and hopefully that’ll shut them up!”
“As soon as it came across, I just thought, hit the target and luckily enough I did,” he added. “Powelly has done magnificent because he’s made the keeper think he was going to shoot and then made him unaware for my goal so fair play to him.”
Up to the hour point, Fleet were struggling to give their strikers a clear sight of goal and Kedwell praised his boss for seeing a change was needed and making it. “That goes to show how good the gaffer is, he can see it, he’s adapted to it and done it as a 4-4-2 and I think we’ve gone and dominated the game straight away. I thought Marvin [McCoy] was absolutely outstanding when he came on today so we’ve got the players across the squad and that’s what you need.”
But it could have all been a different story had Nathan Ashmore not provided the platform for the Fleet to build upon and Kedwell recognised his goalkeeper’s contribution. “That’s Nathan since he’s been here, a great shot stopper and the amount of times, not just today, since he’s been here, he’s saved us and we’ve gone on to win the game. It goes unrecognised sometimes as well, he’s just going to be a legend here.”
Fleet now lie third in the National League at this very early stage of the season and Kedwell insisted that it’s a good start that the team must build on. “That’s the standards that the gaffer set. The first five games of the season are massive. If we can get as many points as we can on the table, we’ve got a good shout. So to have four points out of two games is a great start.”
Listen to full interview below.
https://soundcloud.com/eufcofficial/kedwell-after-maidstone