AN ALTOGETHER MORE SPLENDID KIND OF LIFE - 2005-06

23 Seasons watching Maidenhead United

Part 12: 2005-06

Exceptional is the football club that has avoided a financial crisis since the game reaped the neo-liberal economic whirlwind sowed in the 80s which is still with us today.

The whistling sound of impending upheaval had been growing, reaching a crescendo in December, and was inevitably accompanied by a disastrous season on the pitch.

The heart of the problem was the absence of a financial benefactor to make good the deficit between the revenue earned and the costs required to compete in the Conference South. A solution was pursued to release the property value of the ground with negotiations taking place with Tesco to sell them York Road and move to an alternative site on the other side of the railway line owned by Thames Water off Stafferton Way.

However by the summer of 2005 the deal was dead, with the absence of end of year accounts at the AGM reflecting the black hole in club’s finances. A small financial injection from a groundshare deal with homeless Slough Town also foundered as the Rebels elected to stay at Windsor. The club’s officers continued to search for an answer to the mounting crisis, with an approach to former Chairman Roger Coombs to return, which again came to nought.

All of this left manager Dennis Greene with something less than a shoestring budget with which to build a squad, and on the opening day at Sutton United, only three players from the previous season remained in the line up. The match was over as a contest before half time, finishing 4-1 to the home team, and by the end of August only one point, against a ten man Newport, had been earned. Matters barely improved in September, Greene’s position placed in further jeopardy when a threatening message was sent from his forum account to a prominent supporter.

A home defeat to Yeading proved to be the final straw, and little more than 48 hours later Greene was replaced by Carl Taylor (pictured right) who had been a popular assistant manager to Alan Devonshire.

This was Taylor’s first job as number one but he brought with him Tony Choules who had previously had extraordinary success at Northwood, and worked with Taylor at Hornchurch the previous season. The pair had plenty to do with a vital match at fellow strugglers Carshalton the following Saturday.

With some players departing in Greene’s wake, there were six debutants in the starting line up at Colston Avenue, with one of them, Dominic White (pictured top), scoring the only goal of the game.

The win boosted morale throughout the club but had no lasting effect. The FA Cup and Trophy were exited at the first time of asking, and a second league win, this time at Dorchester was followed by two thumping defeats by an aggregate score of 12-1, the first of which seeing 8 goals shipped at Bognor.

The poor form was still outstripped by declining finances, with the club now reliant on sponsors Pharmalink to maintain the weekly playing budget. Although the previous year’s accounts were finally accepted at a stormy egm in October, the members club was clearly no longer viable and rather than continue to plug the gap, Pharmalink made an offer to takeover.

Such was the desperation for this to go through, a virtual death notice was placed on the back page of the Maidenhead Advertiser ahead of another EGM with one item on the agenda: to wind up the members club and replace it with a new Limited Company funded by Pharmalink.

With the scale of the club’s debt at last out in the open, there was a sense of disbelief which soon turned to anger at the way it had been covered up although I had inadvertently discovered how serious the problem was when I received a final demand from the Bank via the website mailbox.

With the very future of the club at stake, the members had little option but to accept the Pharmalink offer, with the vote carried with just one nay and a few abstentions to fold the members’ club.  

Although the manner of its passing was by necessity hasty, in truth the Victorian ideal of a club run by and for members had long outlived its utility. There were neither elected officers with deep enough pockets to subsidise semi-professional football nor a membership able to hold them to account. The long term security afforded by limited liability was long overdue, and with a group of 21st century Entrepreneurs ready to take the club on with all its manifest problems, it really was a case of the darkest light being before the dawn.

Una Loughrey was the new chairman, with husband Peter Griffin (both pictured left), brother Stephen Loughrey along with his wife Suzanne joining her on the new board of directors together with existing club officers Bob Hussey, Ken Chandler and Paul Carney.

With off the pitch matters settling down, Carl Taylor was provided with the funds to mount a relegation fight, with a first home win of the season coming at last in early January. Two more soon followed at York Road and at the end of February a win at Yeading saw the Magpies clear of the bottom three and in with a real chance of survival.

 Unfortunately everything fell apart from this point, as Taylor’s naive faith in a disparate but talented squad to execute his complex game plans crumbled as the season reached its climax. There was to be no last gasp battle for safety this time as relegation was confirmed by Easter. The sorry shambles of the team was exemplified in the final match at Histon when Chris Wild and Nana Badu failed to turn up in time to play, meaning coach Matt Gore (pictured right) had to make an impromptu debut. Only a last minute penalty save by Chico Ramos stopped the Magpies goals against column finishing on 100.

There was however an odd postscript to the season which almost saw United decide the title when it was discovered that midfielder Solomon Taiwo, who only played the first six matches of the season, had not received international clearance having previously played abroad. He went on to sign for champions Weymouth who also didn’t check his status and almost cost them the points which gave them the title.

Thus Maidenhead also lost the two points gained when Taiwo played. Another depressing statistic, outdone by the total of 63 players who wore the black and white stripes that season. All of which was dwarfed by the massive debts which almost blew the club away before the white knights of Pharmalink arrived in the nick of time. Things could only get better.

With thanks to Mark Smith’s book One For Sorrow Two For Joy for the statistical content of this series.

To read more about this season visit www.mufcheritage.com

Floody Hell

I was grateful enough to watch some live football yesterday after suffering a drought of twelve days for various reasons, but to see Maidenhead United achieve their biggest away league win for over 30 years made it a match to stick in the memory.

After a morning reading about endless postponements coupled with messages of assurance that the Staines Town pitch was perfectly playable (with the caveat, "at the moment"), I set out at 1 pm fully expecting to make a wasted journey.

This feeling grew on arrival in the town when I found my usual route to Wheatsheaf Park along the Thames path flooded out (right). Then approaching the ground a judiciously placed temporary flood sign outside the entrance to Wheatsheaf Park seemed to confirm my worst fears (top). As stewards huddled under any cover they could find I made my way into the ground and was pleasantly surprised to see a fine looking pitch, a tangible gain from the Swans decision to exile themselves from their own ground for a few years in the 90s, the new surface light years away from the dust bowl of old.

So to kick off, and for me a chance to run my eye over the three new Magpie signings brought into give the team a more solid look. With Mark Nisbet absent with a cold, and Daniel Brown suspended, one of the new men, Patrick Kanyuka, was given the captain's armband in only his third start on his return to the club he had only left in November.

Beneath broken clouds the match kicked off, with the tone of the game set by the formations adopted by either side. As they say in boxing, styles make fights, and the way Staines set themselves up played right into the hands of the Magpies with a solid back four fronted by central midfield pair Michael Pook and Joe Taibiri snuffing out the threat of the Staines front three. More importantly Drax's decision to play two out and out wingers gave United a competitive advantage throughout as Staines' centralised midfield three meant Harry Pritchard and Chris Flood had no need to protect their full back or face being penned back by an opposing wide midfielder. Meanwhile man of the match Alex Wall gave his best performance to date as a lone centre forward, calling to mind Craig O'Connor's immaculate display in another memorable away win, at Cambridge City in 2005.

Maidenhead took the lead within the first five minutes of the match, a Flood cross from the right being met by the salmon like leap of Pritchard to head into the back of the net. From this point on United never looked back but survived a couple of testing spells from their hosts before scoring again. Both spells centred on set pieces, the first saw three successive corners defended, the second challenge came from a free kick. On both occasions, Kanyuka's ability to get his head to the ball at the right time, and Taibiri's calm distribution was enough to alleviate the pressure and set up a counter attack. The second of these just ahead of the half hour mark produced a corner and the second Maidenhead goal, this time it was Pritchard's turn to deliver the cross which swung over to the far post where Flood was free to head home.

With Maidenhead now in their pomp they scored their third goal six minutes ahead of the break to seal the win. It proved to be the goal of the game, Harry Pritchard drifting inside with the ball from his left wing position before unleashing a screaming drive with his right foot from twenty yards that flew into the back of the net, which must have impressed the watching former Magpie managerial duo Alan Devonshire and Carl Taylor.

Job done then, now the most serious opponent was the weather with the second half beginning in torrential rain. Maidenhead continued to dominate, Alex Wall seeing his free kick being pushed over the bar by goalkeeper Jack Turner eight minutes after the restart. Wall then won the most significant battle of the day when pacy centre back Jerel Ifil was sent off for persistent foul play despite several warnings from match referee Ash Degnarain.

With over half an hour still to play there was only going to be one conclusion to the match even though a second torrential shower did raise the spectre of an abandonment. The introduction of fresh legs gave Maidenhead fresh impetus and so the Staines goal came under increasing pressure, veteran Swan Scott Taylor clearing off his line to prevent an own goal whilst Turner again foiled Wall with a superb reaction save.

The pressure finally told in the dying minutes, David Pratt collecting a defence splitting pass from Flood to make it four, then making it two goals in three minutes by netting the rebound after a Kanyuka header was saved by Turner.

Deep into stoppage time, Wall finally got his reward for a tireless performance having again been denied by the resilient Turner from a free kick, and then seeing a long shot spilled, the striker collected a pass from Paul Semakula and at last beat Turner with virtually the last kick of the game.

A great Christmas present then for everyone at Maidenhead United with the return of early season form in devastating fashion on an afternoon where everything went right for the Magpies. Certainly everyone will be looking for the name of Degnarain on the officials list, with his aggregate score for the season now standing at 14-0 in United's favour, the referee having been in charge of the annihilation of Truro City at York Road back in September.

Cards sharp

Well beaten by Woking last night even though the score was only 1-0.  They looked a class apart from Maidenhead and I would imagine it would have been clear to a neutral which team which was aspiring to the play offs and which was battling relegation.

Garry Hill seems to have invigorated Woking and with the incentive of last season's play off final disappointment they look a really good bet for promotion.

As for Maidenhead on the positive side the players continue to work hard to remain in contention for points but every defeat must sap the confidence that little bit further.  This is nothing like Carl Taylor's relegation season when twice as much money produced heavy defeats week in week out, nevertheless the corner that needs to be turned is still nowhere to be found.

Matters have been made worse by Mark Nisbet's dismissal.  With him on the pitch the defence looked capable of holding firm, he will now presumably receive a three match ban starting in a fortnight inconveniently timed to coincide with fellow defender Jamal Fyfield's return to York at the end of his loan.

The fixture list is also taking a bizarre turn, six out of the next seven league fixtures are at home (there are also two other home games during this period), followed by four away games.  As with the 1997/98 it could well be that two late seasons games against Hampton could well seal the fate of both clubs although this time relegation rather than promotion is at stake.

An odd postscript (which ironically prevented one) was the referee's decision to reduce the stoppage time to 100 seconds after initially indicating five minutes which seemed reasonable given a half which included five substitutions, a protracted goal celebration and foul/handbags/double sending off incident which itself must have taken two minutes to sort out.  Still as one Woking fan pointed out the extra time could have increased the score to 2-0 and made United's goal difference even worse!

I also spent some time yesterday at the Hammersmith and Fulham archive doing some research for Mark Smith's latest edition of Maidenhead United's history.  I was specifically looking for details of Maidenhead's games against Shepherd's Bush at the turn of the twentieth century.  Maidenhead were regular visitors to West London at this time and at least one of the games was played at Loftus Road, presumably on the same site as the current QPR ground.  I was really lucky to find this information as the centre will be permanently closed next week as part of the cultural vandalism being wreaked on the borough by the local council whose shock doctrine philosophy views even David Cameron with suspicion as a dangerous pinko liberal.

Choules Rules

One of the minor what ifs of recent Magpie history came during the short reign of Carl Taylor at York Road in 2005.  The former assistant to Alan Devonshire returned as manager with Tony Choules coming in as assistant having previously achieved amazing success at the helm of Northwood.  The season ended in relegation leaving many to ponder what would have happened if the pair had stayed in the roles that had brought them success.

After leaving Maidenhead Choules ended up at Uxbridge where he has been ever since.

This season has been disappointing for the team from Honeycroft but they ensured the dismal weather would impact most on the mood of those favouring black and white stripes on Saturday.  Despite being two divisions below United they thoroughly humbled them, racing into a two goal lead, then after Maidenhead had clawed their way back into the game to level the score, the Reds pulled away again with two more goals, much to the delight of the bench. Maidenhead meanwhile were left pleading to the referee for set pieces such was their inability to fashion the goals their status suggested they merited.

At the other end events were reminiscent of an almost embarrassing trip to Swindon Supermarine in the same competition a few years back when young keeper Nick Hart almost threw the game away only for the Magpies to pull back a 3-1 deficit with only ten minutes on the clock.  This time there was to be no second chance for Dexter Burt.