Angels recovered from an early setback to earn a richly deserved point which could so easily have been three.
Despite falling behind to a scrappy Deon Moore goal on five minutes, Alan Dunne’s men fought back and, as well as grabbing a second half equaliser through Ricky Korboa, hit the woodwork three times.
In a lacklustre first half which failed to reach the levels the pre-match hype predicted, Maidstone silenced the home end with the early goal.
A Riley Court free-kick found the head of towering defender Taylor Foran who nodded into the danger area and in the ensuing scramble, after Laurie Shala palmed a ricochet clear, Moore finished from close range with his thigh to send the large travelling contingent in a crowd of 2509 into raptures.
Stunned into action, Angels found their feet and on 26 minutes were inches away from an equaliser.
After a superbly timed crunching and perfectly legitimate tackle on David Sesay, right wing back Kyle Smith played in ex-Stone Tom Leahy, who cut in from the right and curled in a low, left-foot shot which hit the base of the post before going out of play.
A rather flat first half nearly ended dramatically when Angels hit the woodwork for the second time.
Ricky Korboa’s cross deceived Stones’ keeper Nathan Harness and sailed over his head only to strike the angle between crossbar and post.
At half-time, Dunne brought on Scott Wagstaff and Bunmi Babajide who replaced Matty Warren and Marcus Sablier respectively.
The impact was also immediate as Wagstaff began bossing the midfield and Babajide started employing his trademark mazy runs into the heart of the Stones defence.
On 47, Angels hit the woodwork for the third time as Korboa’s shot got deflected leaving Harness stranded, and looked destined for the corner but once again, hit the post, rebounded out and ended up in the thankful keeper’s arms.
Just after the hour Leahy gave way to Alfie Pavey, also facing one of his former clubs.
On 66, with Angels now calling the shots, the best move of the match brought the deserved equaliser. Korboa picked it up in the midfield and found Babajide who drove at the heart of the defence, played a perfectly weighted ball to slip in Wagstaff who skipped past Harness.
Though forced wide, his cross found Korboa lurking at the far post who had the simplest of tasks to finish.
Immediately afterwards, a coming together of blue and amber shirts resulted in a shoulder injury to Wagstaff who was replaced by Ansu Janneh and with ten minutes remaining, Dunne threw on Sean Shields clearly hoping for the talisman’s last minute winning antics at The Gallagher in November.
Though the visitors won a succession of corners and free-kicks, Shala was barely troubled and Angels so nearly got the goal their second half performance deserved when a chance fell to Janneh but his angled chip landed on the top of the net.
Angels had to withstand some injury time pressure as Stones went for a win but the resolute back three of Thompson, Sutcliffe and McCann, ably supported by the energetic Williams held firm.
Dunne said: “We started a little bit nervously and it was a poor goal for us to give away but after that I don’t think Laurie Shala had a save to make. After that I thought we dominated, especially in the second half, when I thought we would go on to win it and overall I’m disappointed we didn’t get the three points. But they are one of the league’s heavyweights and this season we’ve taken four points off them and as a club we’re making good strides.”
