Elvijs dives way down to save Maidenhead

I really don't know what to make of yesterday. Farnborough should have completed taking six points off Maidenhead for the season on the balance of play and chances, even if you disregard the last minute save. Yet it wouldn't have surprised me if Maidenhead had completed a smash and grab victory against the odds on a eerie afternoon played out in front of the lowest crowd I have ever seen at Cherrywood Road (reportedly accurately as 250) and in the second half a beautiful sunset which captivated everyone where I was standing as Farnborough laid siege to the Maidenhead goal at the other end.

To be honest I could have happily stayed in the Prince of Wales all afternoon, a wonderful pub located amongst the town's seemingly endless suburban sprawl (where do people go shopping in these parts?). Two pints of Hophead went down very nicely and I was seriously contemplating the Dark Star Espresso Stout before duty called and we headed off to the match.

Walking completely unchallenged through the complimentary ticket entrance I emerged into the ground Mr. Benn style before shuffling across the face of the still not quite finished big stand to join the few who had travelled from Maidenhead under the covered terraced. Sadly we had to share this part of the ground with the local version of the Archbishop of Banterbury and his guffawing mates (sample quip when Reece Tison-Lascaris was receiving treatment "put him down").

Fortunately there was enough action for this to be only a minor irritation in a half which was characterised by individual defensive errors by Maidenhead United providing enough opportunities for Farnborough to have won the game by the interval.

By keeping two banks of four close together Farnborugh were able to suffocate most of Maidenhead's early attacking endeavours whilst by contrast the space afforded the home team in the middle helped them to force a number of errors as the United defence attempted to recover the situation.

Farnborough took the lead in the eighth minute. Some neat interplay on the left finished with a Michael Richens shot rattling the cross bar. A misplaced clearance by Ryan Upward saw possession return to Farnborough and Dan Bennett got in front of Simon Downer at the near post to head in Louis Theophanous' cross from the right.

Despite this setback Maidenhead began to get to grips with the opposition and once the midpoint of the half was reached they gave as good as they got and were unfortunate not to get a penalty when Ashley Nicholls went down following contact from a defender. This was quickly forgotten when a ball forward by Downer was met by an exchange of passes by Tison-Lascaris and Campbell, the latter scoring with an unstoppable shot from the edge of the penalty area.

Having got back on level terms, Maidenhead showed plenty of attacking threat, winning a series of corners, a Danny Green long shot exposing the poor handling of goalkeeper Dillon Barnes who fumbled the ball wide. However it was Farnborough who went closest to scoring a second before the interval. This was particularly true of a Duncan Culley header who capitalised on a clearance by Elvijs Putnins which was blocked at close range. With Putnins unable to clear the loose ball Culley headed goalward with Putnins somehow managing to scramble back an scrape the ball off the line. More of the same was to follow before half time, a loose pass from Devante McKain gave Harry Grant a chance which he put narrowly wide whilst when Downer was caught in possession Phil Page charged forward with the ball but couldn't quite take it round Putnins who was able to block his shot behind for a corner. The set piece saw Putnins make a flying one handed save from Page but the Latvian saved his best for the second half.

Johnson Hippolyte used half time to shore up the Maidenhead midfield by replacing Tison-Lascaris with Eddie Hutchison which certainly did the trick and had a Campbell effort soon after the restart not been cleared off the line by Lloyd Foot a classic smash and grab raid could have occurred. This made the next intervention of Putnins even more essential as he made the save of the match. A deep cross from the right hand touch line one was met by the head of Page, Putnins sinking like a stone to save the ball on the line.

This set the tone for the half as Farnborough continually tried and failed to find a way to score, whilst Maidenhead threatened the odd breakaway the best of which saw Green combine with Campbell to fire in a shot which Barnes could only Parry. 

With one minute left on the clock it seemed Farnborough had at last made the breakthrough when Theophanous went to ground under pressure from Leon Solomon but it appears that the weight of his rumoured £7,000 price tag was too much to bear as he was unable to give his penalty kick the necessary power and direction to beat Putnins who dived to his right and just about held on to the ball to seal his man of the match award.

So can't grumble with a point, but United really need to cash in on the run of home games coming up with just two points taken from the last fifteen, four of those games being away. 

There was time for a swift pint in the Thatched Cottage on the way back to the station as news filtered through of a series of tweets on the official Farnborough timeline which lacked class. At least we could ponder the karmic retribution of their blank Boxing Day thanks to Salisbury's demise, a just reward for the farce created by the Hampshire club at the start of the previous season which had led to a raft of unnecessary postponements.

Magpies left feeling like April Fools

Local aircraft beware of long high balls to Richard Pacquette

With the full intention of sounding like a broken record I don't like football trips to urban Hampshire and yesterday provided no evidence for the defence as Maidenhead slipped to another defeat by an all too inevitable late goal.

Take Courage!

The customary Easter public transport meltdown meant I opted to travel to Farnborough Main station, which despite providing a rather more upmarket residential approach to the ground remained in true Hampshire style unfriendly to pedestrians.

The traditional Courage sign still standing outside my pre match watering hole, the Ship Inn, correctly suggested a time warp of a pub which was confirmed when the pub TV displayed full coverage of the Bayern Munich v Arsenal match from a few weeks ago rather than the live FA Cup tie. 

The White Elephant

Arriving at Cherrywood Road in time for kick off it felt odd to see more ground improvements in view of Farnborough's continuing financial strife with non league football's biggest white elephant of a stand still closed to the public.

Following Saturday's defeat, Drax opted to change Maidenhead's wide attacking options by selecting Ramone Rose and Reece Tison-Lascaris in favour of Harry Pritchard and Chris Flood. Rose slotted straight into Pritchard's left wing position whilst David Pratt was placed on the other flank to provide Tison-Lascaris the opportunity to repeat his marvelous goal running from the heart of midfield in the corresponding fixture at York Road in September.

Farnborough took charge of the game from the kick off and almost took the lead as early as the third minute when a Richard Peniket shot was pushed wide by the outstretched hand of Billy Lumley. Just past the quarter of an hour mark though Peniket got his name on the scoresheet. The goal came from a corner which was headed onto the crossbar by Dean Inman. Peniket was first to the rebound and although a defender cleared the referee awarded a goal.

Farnborugh were now rampant and looked like doubling their lead on more than one occasion but as the half drew on, Maidenhead worked their way back into the game. Initially the Magpies attacks were made to look a little silly, not helped by another bobbly pitch and strong wind which led to several efforts only being worthy of a "mind the new stand" comment. 

We got a corner!

Yet with a minute to go before the break a rare corner from the right saw the ball end up at the feet of Michael Pook on the edge of the penalty area, his drilled shot flying low into the back of the net.

The lift of a goal persisted into the second half as Maidenhead enjoyed their best spell of the game, albeit after some committed defending denied Farnborough the opportunity to promptly restore their lead.

The United wide right players now really came into their own creating two golden opportunities for Richard Pacquette to complete the Magpie comeback within the first ten minutes of the second half. Firstly a cross from Pratt found Pacquette free near the penalty spot only for the striker to balloon the ball over the bar. Then more frustratingly good work from Leon Solomon created an even easier chance for Pacquette who collected the ball on the edge of the six yard box only to offer a meek back pass to the keeper. Its moments like this that lend themselves to pontification about their impact on confidence, with the obvious conclusion in this instance of a booking for dissent midway through the second half.

Maidenhead continued to have the upper hand but Farnborough's counter attacks became increasingly ominous with the inevitable sucker punch coming three minutes from time when Nic Ciardini fired home the winner from outside the penalty area. So the United faithful were feeling looking like April Fools for naively believing in the hope given by the equaliser as the end result saw the Magpies slip into the bottom three at the business end of the season.