Hopes fade in the Twilight Zone

I can't remember the last time Maidenhead's unbeaten home record lasted into October and so had high hopes that this season's promising start could turn York Road into a fortress in the actual rather than cynical sense of the word.

All these hopes disappeared in an awful last twenty five minutes of the first half when the defence disappeared into a Twilight Zone in the gloom at the eastern end of the ground to leave Hornchurch seemingly able to score at will.

All this after the game started so promisingly, man of the match Harry Pritchard forcing two top saves out of Hornchurch goalkeeper Joe Woolley in two moves in the thirteenth minute. Yet once the visitors realise that a quick direct ball down the flank would expose the United defence it was all Hornchurch with the first goal coming when Martin Tuohy was given enough time to recover from almost tripping himself up to finish from twelve yards. Tuohy went on to miss an absolute sitter of a header but when Ben Bowditch cut in from the right to beat Billy Lumley at his near post to double the lead Maidenhead were looking desperately for the half time whistle.

Unfortunately there were still eight minutes left so even though Lumley saved well with his feet from Tuohy, and then tipped a Lewis Smith free kick over the bar, there was still time for Daniel Brown to turn the ball into his own net from a Smith cross.

After the break Maidenhead were full of the vim and vigour necessary to mount a comeback from 3-0 down and an enticing script was promised when Pritchard scored a deserved goal within eight of the restart. The game was over as a contest though two minutes later when Lumley received a red card for bringing down Smith when through on goal to leave Alex Tokarcyk's first duty as a Maidenhead player to pick Tuohy's penalty out of the net.

The ten men of Maidenhead gave it their all for the rest of the game and when Alex Wall tapped in a fumbled Pritchard shot there was enough doubt created to prevent the Magpie fans leaving early but the unbeaten record was a lost cause and so an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu hung around York Road with the next FA Cup tie up next.