Two Pac Secures win at last

A member of the Havant Coaching Staff makes a start on the new stand

Top played bottom of the form table and as the cliche would have it the form book was upset, a change of tactics by Drax reversing the recent result in the corresponding game in Hampshire.

The decision to go with five men in defence was quite effective in snuffing out the attacking threat from the visitors for the larger part of the game, and even the early departure of Mark Nisbet with an injury simply led to substitute Tom Gilbey slotting in at the back.

Early on Havant had threatened with a Chris Arthur snapshot which Billy Lumley pushed over the bar but the stifling effect of the extra Magpie defender led to a cagey opening act of the game which gave me the opportunity to get a first recruit for my Anti Hampshire Alliance where a ground rule was agreed upon that the New Forest was excluded by virtue of being too nice.

One saving grace of Maidenhead's losing run was their ability to create goal scoring opportunities and in the latter two thirds of the first half they came at regular intervals.The first saw Reece Tison-Lascaris latch onto a wonderful pass from Nisbet. The youngster's shot ricocheted off the post to David Pratt who put his follow up effort wide leading to much shaking of heads at the thought that once again it was going to be one of those days.

That it wasn't can be put down to the power of Richard Pacquette's head. Twice, in the 29th and 41st minutes, he nodded in super crosses from the right. The first was supplied by Leon Solomon with the second seeing Pratt making amends for his earlier miss by swinging over the second. In between Pacquette didn't make the best of three chances with his feet so the message seems clear for the rest of the season - put it on his head son!

The perfect first half was completed deep into injury time when March's player of the month Ollie Palmer blasted the ball over from close range and that was more or less that in terms of goalmouth action for the rest of the game.

After the break Havant threatened occasionally to no great effect whilst Maidenhead won the odd corner (Exhibit A above) so the final result was barely in doubt which meant United climbed out of the bottom three and now need to repeat the trick at least two more times to be sure of a place in the Conference South next season.