How many shots? Maidstone United survive Ipswich Town onslaught to seal shock FA Cup win

Sam Corne celebrates with his Maidstone United team-mates after scoring against Ipswich Town in the FA Cup in January 2024.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Maidstone United survived an unbelievable 38 shots and scored with their only two attempts to knock Championship high-flyers Ipswich Town out of the FA Cup on Saturday.

Sixth-tier Maidstone secured an unlikely win at Portman Road thanks to excellent counter-attacking strikes from Lamar Reynolds and Sam Corne.

Ipswich, playing at home and 98 places above Maidstone in the football pyramid, are second in the Championship and the Tractor Boys named a much-changhed side for Saturday's fourth-round tie.

The home side still would have expected to win, but missed numerous opportunities in the first half and hit the woodwork three times.

And they were punished two minutes before the break as Reynolds fired Maidstone ahead against the run of play on a breakaway attack.

Jeremy Sarmiento's deflected effort levelled the scores after 56 minutes, but Sam Corne fired the visitors back in front with a neat finish.

Ipswich went on the attack again after that and piled on the pressure through eight minutes of added time, but could not find a way through as Maidstone became the first side from National League North or South to reach the last 16 of the FA Cup since the regional split in 2004.

As in the previous round, there were wild celebrations from the Maidstone players and staff after the final whistle in front of 4,600 travelling fans and the non-league outfit will take their place in the draw for the fifth round of the competition.

Maidstone's Brazilian goalkeeper Lucas Covolan was unsurprisingly named Man of the Match for his heroics at Portman Road.

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Ben Hayward
Weekend editor

Ben Hayward is a European football writer and Tottenham Hotspur fan with over 15 years’ experience, he has covered games all over the world - including three World Cups, several Champions League finals, Euros, Copa America - and has spent much of that time in Spain. Ben speaks English and Spanish, currently dividing his time between Barcelona and London, covering all the big talking points of the weekend on FFT: he’s also written several list features and interviewed Guglielmo Vicario for the magazine.