Maidstone stun Ipswich with 2-1 FA Cup victory at Portman Road

National League South outfit Maidstone caused a huge FA Cup shock by knocking out Ipswich 2-1 at Portman Road.

The visiting players and fans went wild at the final whistle to hail their progress through to the fifth round of the competition.

The Kent side, who are 98 places below Ipswich in the football pyramid, withstood consistent pressure from the Tractor Boys who missed chance after chance with their goalkeeper Lucas Covolan having the game of his life.

They struck through Lamar Reynolds in the 43rd minute and Sam Corne after 66 minutes with the Ipswich goal coming from Jeremy Sarmiento.

Sarmiento and Hutchinson both hit the post, keeper Covolan made full length saves to deny Hutchinson and Morsy, while Edmundson and Aluko both spurned golden opportunities.

The game was only three minutes old when Ipswich had their first chance at goal.

A cross from Omari Hutchinson found raiding full back Cameron Humphreys on the far post and his knock back fell to Nathan Broadhead whose shot was blocked.

Moments later Brighton loanee Sarmiento’s 25-yard effort hit the base of the post and rebounded out to Hutchinson and his shot was saved low down by the Maidstone goalkeeper.

The visitor’s first attack came after 13 minutes when Lamar Reynolds got the better of Axel Tuanzebe down the left and Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong sent a searching low cross into the Town box to a huge roar from the away end.

Pressure was raining down on the Maidstone defence and another effort struck the opposite post when Hutchinson’s shot took a deflection off Sam Corne and Broadhead was through one on one with just Covolan to beat but the United shot  stopper got down low to block his shot.

Covolan dived dramatically full length to push away Hutchinson’s shot and from the resultant corner George Edmundson headed over the bar.

Town skipper Sam Morsy was urged to shoot from 25 yards out and he duly obliged with a well-struck drive which Covolan pushed around the post.

Hutchinson beat Harry Kyprianou and saw his shot clatter off Paul Appiah to go behind and from the resultant corner Hutchinson found the head of the unmarked George Edmundson at the far post but he held his head in his hands after missing the target.

The National League South side were clinging on as the game got past the 30 minute mark as they held on against the Championship high flyers with their back five defending with their lives but another long range effort from Sarmiento took a wicked deflection off Appiah and clipped the top the Maidstone net.

It was mainly one way traffic towards the United goal with chance after chance being spurned by the Ipswich forwards with Morsy firing over the bar and Sone Aluko missing a gilt edged chance.

But the visitors stunned the Portman Road faithful and sent the travelling fans into raptures just before the half time break when they took the lead through Reynolds.

The Town defence was found wanting as a long ball was pumped forward for the Maidstone front man to charge through on goal and he produced the coolest of dinks over the on-rushing Christian Walton to find the back of the net.

Visiting players, staff and subs all mobbed the goalscorer causing pandemonium in the away end.

Ipswich finally found the back of the net through Sarmiento in the 56th minute when he twisted and turned in the Maidstone penalty area to fire the ball past Covolan.

But Maidstone retook the lead in the 66th minute when Corne put the visitors 2-1 ahead.

There appeared to be a blatant shirt tug on Sarmiento in midfield but Premier League referee Anthony Taylor waved play on, Reynolds passed a great ball inside to Corne who strode through from midfield and fired a left footed shot past Walton.

Ipswich piled on the pressure for the equaliser and substitutes Harry Clarke and Wes Burns came chose while Taylor turned away penalty appeals when Edmunson appeared to be fouled by Manny Duku. The Ipswich defender subsequently was shown a yellow card.

With time running out Covolan made a stunning reactionary save to deny Conor Chaplin and there was a scramble in the six yard area as Maidstone retained the ball.

Burns’ header was turned over the bar by Covolan and there was eight minutes added on but the non league minnows hung on to the delight of their 4,472 fans in the visiting 27,763 crowd.