Life watching Maidenhead United used to be very different in the 90s. Crowds at York Road were about half of what they are now, and a significant part of the Isthmian League season involved playing clubs from Essex.
Essex clubs were always of a type, hard working, ultra competitive and often as a consequence over achieving. Concord Rangers provided a reminder of these times on Thursday night, playing at a high tempo which appeared to be unsustainable but which they managed to maintain throughout, effectively spoiling any attempts by Maidenhead to get a toehold in the game, and operating as a tag team to continuously bark at the referee.
As with Saturday, Maidenhead threatened early on when Harry Pritchard cut in from the left and had a shot which was pushed round the post by Jamie Butler. Thereafter Rangers doubled up their marking of Pritchard to largely nullify his influence.
In the eighteenth minute man of the match Seedy Njie went over Brett Longden's leg on the byline to win a penalty which Danny Glozier converted. Maidenhead worked hard to retrieve the situation and if they had gone into the interval only one goal down I had hopes that they would overtake a tiring Rangers in the second half. Neither part of that equation came to pass though as firstly Mark Nisbet repeated Longden's foul. This took place outside the penalty area but former Magpie Sam Collins struck the kick fiercely and unfortunately a couple of deflections saw it land at the feet of an unmarked Steve King who finished from close range to double the lead.
Any hopes of a Maidenhead revival were quashed within five minutes of the restart when in the best move of the game, Njie went through on goal and beat Henly with a neat finish. With the game all but over, it became a frustrating affair to watch as Concord's continual spoiling tactics sucked Maidenhead into earning a string of yellow cards, Daniel Brown getting two and an early bath with 15 minutes left.
Five minutes earlier, Danny Green had forced Butler to push his shot from distance wide. From the resulting corner a Brown shot appeared to be heading goalward, Richard Pacquette helping it over the line, only for the linesman's flag to be raised for offside. Despite going down to ten men, Maidenhead continued to enjoy their best part of the game and eventually pulled a goal back when Leon Solomon headed in a Pritchard free kick.
With Concord harbouring play off ambitions the result was not unexpected and fortunately with Tonbridge only taking one out of six midweek points on offer, Saturday's game remains as much must not lose as must win.
Essex clubs were always of a type, hard working, ultra competitive and often as a consequence over achieving. Concord Rangers provided a reminder of these times on Thursday night, playing at a high tempo which appeared to be unsustainable but which they managed to maintain throughout, effectively spoiling any attempts by Maidenhead to get a toehold in the game, and operating as a tag team to continuously bark at the referee.
As with Saturday, Maidenhead threatened early on when Harry Pritchard cut in from the left and had a shot which was pushed round the post by Jamie Butler. Thereafter Rangers doubled up their marking of Pritchard to largely nullify his influence.
In the eighteenth minute man of the match Seedy Njie went over Brett Longden's leg on the byline to win a penalty which Danny Glozier converted. Maidenhead worked hard to retrieve the situation and if they had gone into the interval only one goal down I had hopes that they would overtake a tiring Rangers in the second half. Neither part of that equation came to pass though as firstly Mark Nisbet repeated Longden's foul. This took place outside the penalty area but former Magpie Sam Collins struck the kick fiercely and unfortunately a couple of deflections saw it land at the feet of an unmarked Steve King who finished from close range to double the lead.
Any hopes of a Maidenhead revival were quashed within five minutes of the restart when in the best move of the game, Njie went through on goal and beat Henly with a neat finish. With the game all but over, it became a frustrating affair to watch as Concord's continual spoiling tactics sucked Maidenhead into earning a string of yellow cards, Daniel Brown getting two and an early bath with 15 minutes left.
Five minutes earlier, Danny Green had forced Butler to push his shot from distance wide. From the resulting corner a Brown shot appeared to be heading goalward, Richard Pacquette helping it over the line, only for the linesman's flag to be raised for offside. Despite going down to ten men, Maidenhead continued to enjoy their best part of the game and eventually pulled a goal back when Leon Solomon headed in a Pritchard free kick.
With Concord harbouring play off ambitions the result was not unexpected and fortunately with Tonbridge only taking one out of six midweek points on offer, Saturday's game remains as much must not lose as must win.
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