Local Hero

Good to see Lee Barney score his first goal for the senior team on Saturday after banging them in for fun for the last few years for the Youth team.  This was a pleasantly surprising end to a second half which looked to be going to form in other words goalless.  Four out of the five games between Maidenhead and Weston at York Road in the past had ended goalless.  This was largely due to the obdurate approach of Weston to the game, typifying the traditional Southern League attitude of ensuring nothing is given away first and foremost before trying to win the game.  Yesterday however the Seagulls were much improved from the woeful outfit that collapsed to a 4-1 defeat against the Magpies in Somerset last March.  The lack of goals was not for want of trying by either side, Maidenhead in particular adopting an enterprising tactical approach to increase the number of forwards on show.  Employing a 4-2-3-1 formation did not always look like producing the goods particularly when the substitutions changed the personnel involved, but such innovation should be praised for attempting to create goalscoring opportunities.  This opens the question of tactics at this level.  Are, as Alan Devonshire infamously said whilst manager of Maidenhead United, semi-professional players incapable of the flexibility required to regularly change formations due to their lack of regular training?  He of course stuck to his beloved 5-3-2 strategy with religious devotion whilst at York Road and was rewarded with a bulging trophy cabinet.  However times change and surely a more flexible approach is required nowadays?