One of the major attractions of sport whether you are participant or spectator is the way in which it tests character. As a chiefly escapist pursuit it provides a relatively safe environment for a participant to lose themselves and see if they fight or flee when challenged under pressure. The spectator is left to play the role of chorus, as supporter to keep the participant going or to play a pantomime role putting him off.
Football sees this taken to the extreme where the final whistle usually signals merely the end of the beginning as rolling news and social media squeeze hours if not days of coverage out of any incident in which a player is shown to be fallible.
Within the squad it's the goalkeeper who runs the greatest risk of being made to look at fault due to his mistakes most likely leading to a goal for the opposition. Thus the greats in this position tend to be known for their courage, composure and individuality.
Maidenhead United's Will Britt clearly is thought by many to have a big future in the professional game. He won the FA Youth Cup with Norwich (beating Chelsea in the final) and was subsequently snapped up by Premier League Southampton. His performances since arriving at York Road were consistent in that they regularly showed signs of a talent that was above that commonly seen at Conference South level, particularly his flying saves and athletic blocks. Then he had a shocker last week against Ebbsfleet United.
In a game which saw Ebbsfleet slightly in the ascendancy but little improved from the outfit which the Magpies took four points from last season, the first half look set to finish goalless until with six minutes remaining a Daryl McMahon free kick from the right hand touchline wormed its way unimpeded inside Britt's near post. Then ironically with only six minutes gone of the second half Anthony Cook ran clear, only for Britt to hesitate in coming out to challenge him, ultimately electing to remain inside his penalty area and bring Cook down with the inevitable result a red card.
With Drax deciding not to name a sub keeper it was left to captain Mark Nisbet to step up and take the number 1 shirt, almost saving Billy Bricknell's penalty. The central defender then let a Chris Sessegnon cross slip through his hands for a third goal, astonishingly incurring the wrath of a long time specatator who berated the centre back for his goalkeeping skills, before Matt Godden completed the scoring to end a day to forget for the Magpies.
Due to the two week hiatus for suspensions to become effective at this level Britt was back between the sticks yesterday for the visit of Poole Town in the FA Trophy. Poole currently lead the Southern League but given the hard job they made of dispatching the woeful Staines Town it didn't feel like the tie had the makings of an upset despite United's poor recent league form. Nevertheless nothing could be left to chance so it was time to dig out my lucky black and white woolly hat to make sure.
Travelling up with the Dolphins was Maidenhead United's stalwart supporter Dave Popejoy, who since moving down to the south coast had joined Town's back room team in time for their charge from the Wessex League to the top of the Southern.
With Devante McKain and Leon Solomon fit again, Jacob Erskine and Bobby Behzadi returned to the bench, allowing Simon Downer to move back to his more usual role in the centre of defence. Ryan Upward replaced a flu ridden Eddie Hutchinson in midfield, whilst Reece Tison-Lascaris replaced an injured Adrian Clifton playing off the shoulder of front man DJ Campbell. The rare inclusion of Tison-Lascaris was a ploy to expose the two towering Poole centre backs, however it wasn't until the striker was substituted that United scored twice, late in the second half to win the tie.
The opening stages saw both sides attacking with purpose, Poole perhaps marginally shading the play although they were lucky not to concede a penalty in the eleventh minute when Lewis Tallack clearly pushed over Dave Tarpey in the penalty area. This was an exaggerated two handed push, not one of Alan Shearer's coming togethers, or a Diego Da Costa bump into you then fall over, but the referee ignored the incident and the game continued.
As the half drew on Maidenhead posed the biggest threat to the deadlcok with Town goalkeeper Nick Hutchings making saves of increasing difficulty from DJ Campbell, Ryan Upward and Danny Green. Thus it was frustrating that having weathered the early Poole storm, Maidenhead went into the break one goal down when Jack Moloney capitalised on some lax defending with two minutes to go to half time and poked the ball inside Britt's near post. If Poole had been playing in red rather than a rather awful mauve change affair, it would have clearly been a case of deja vu for Maidenhead United given the similar situation seven days earlier.
After the break though Maidenhead showed renewed purpose and Tarpey almost went clear on goal only to be brought down, the Poole defender lucky to stay on the pitch as the foul came before Tarpey could flick the ball into space to present the referee with an open and shut case. Green drew another good save from Hutchings from the resulting free kick but the focus of the game swiftly switched to the other end as Poole dominated and did everything but extend their lead.
Initially this was due to the woodwork when a Luke Roberts shot hit the post then Marvin Brooks hit the crossbar after he was first to the loose ball. Green then cleared off the line but it was Britt who stole the show with a string of saves to keep United in the tie and restore his reputation.
Meanwhile at the other end Maidenhead set about levelling the score. The Bell Street End were most vocal in the denunciation of Drax's decision to replace Tison-Lascaris with Tashan Adeyinka, but the manager proved he knew what he was doing when a driving run from the substitute was only half cleared to McKain who drilled his shot from outside the penalty area over the heads of the defence but under the crossbar.
As the Bell Street End apologised with a round of "Johnson give us a wave" Maidenhead then had a stroke of luck when Harrison Gilkes, who had showed flashes of his father Michael's talent on the left wing, stretched a bit too far and had to go off with a hamstring injury. His absence was ruthlessly exploited by Drax who switched Tarpey onto the right, with substitute Sam Barratt a more than able deputy on the left. With one minute of normal time remaining Campbell got his head to a long ball forward to direct it into the right channel where Tarpey was waiting to collect it, steaming into the area and firing the ball home in trademark fashion.
Appropriately though it was Britt who sealed the win with an acrobatic save to deny James Whisken an equaliser deep into injury time.
Thus Britt proved his character with a man of the match performance in a game which also showed that the best time to judge a manager is at the end of the 90 minutes although of course it was my lucky hat which deserves the most credit.
No comments:
Post a Comment