Magpies get the Summertime Blues

So a trip to Gosport has once again provided the coda to the Magpies opening season burst of good form. Central defender Simon Downer was perhaps the key absentee in the two Bank Holiday weekend defeats, nevertheless on balance 7 points was a welcome return from what looked like a testing set of five fixtures from the start of the season.

On Saturday Hemel Hemsptead made their first trip to York Road for 8 years following their Southern League title win last April. The Tudors had not made the best of starts to their first Conference South campaign but on Saturday showed many of the qualities of a champion team on the pitch as well as some interesting sartorial choices off it.

The first half was fairly even with the crucial action being two top drawer saves by Hemel goalkeeper Laurie Walker. Around the half an hour mark he had to be on his best form to firstly deny an Ashley Nicholls volley from the edge of the penalty area, and then a Reece Tison-Lascaris effort from close range. The second save was the pick of the two as Lascaris took the time and space created by his pace to pick his spot but Walker steadfastly refused to go to ground and stretched out a hand to scrape the ball away to safety.

Hemel had made regular forays into the United half but seemed to become preoccupied by the performance of the referee and their perception of his lenient treatment of Jacob Erskine as three Tudor players were booked by the interval.

Emerging from the dressing room for the second half, the phrase "keep a clean sheet" was repeated by the away team to the extent of virtually sounding like a mantra, and it was their defensive discipline which proved to be the foundation of their eventual win. Maintaining a tight offside trap, Maidenhead quickly ran out of attacking ideas and the increasing use of Leon Solomon's pace on the wing as a forward option led to a gap opening on the left side of the United defence. 

With captain Jordan Parkes running the midfield efficiently this opportunity was exploited twice to give Hemel an unassailable lead with fifteen minutes to go. Oliver Hawkins led the line impressively for Hemel forcing Elvijs Putnins to palm his header off the line seven minutes into the second half. The tall striker then showed some deft skill to play in forward partner James Simmonds with a defence splitting pass which Simmonds collected in space to convert for the opening goal of the game.

By this point Maidenhead's own big front man Tashan Adeyinka had entered the fray, his debut since receiving international clearance from the Finnish FA, but he was well marshalled by central defenders Kieran Murphy and Jorell Johnson. Hopes of a Magpie comeback were then dashed when Johnson rose highest to head home at the far post, connecting with a Daniel Talbot free kick from the right wing.

Hemel went onto show some less appealing qualities of a champion team thanks to Murphy's whining, all round tasting and some unneccessary abuse from the bench (is there any need to call the referee a "fucking cheat" when you're 2-0 up in stoppage time?).

All in all a deserved victory for the visitors and a reminder for Maidenhead that every point in this division has to be hard earned.

Travelling to Bromley on Monday, the main opponent to a result of any kind looked to be the incessant rain. The spray kicked up by every touch of the ball seemed to increase throughout the first half but the rain waned in the second half to remove any doubt that the game would finish. 

Bromley very firmly give the impression that they are a club fully intent on promotion to the Conference Premier, from a professional but warm welcome off the pitch, to the massive investment on it which gave the squad list something of a Conference South Galacticos air to it.

The highest quality of attack though came from the Magpies starting from within minutes of the kick off. Stefan Brown, who had missed the game of Saturday with food poisoning, forced goalkeeper Seb Brown to tip a long range shot over the bar, and soon had another effort from distance well saved.

Once again though it was the inability to keep it tight at the back which proved to be United's downfall. Adam Birchall picked up a loose touch from Erskine, the star striker moving the ball quickly via Moses Ademola to Ali Fuseini on the right side of the penalty area, Fuseini using the time and space afforded him to beat Putnins with an accomplished finish.

With Erskine having earlier blocked an Ademola effort from point blank range there were fears on the away terrace that this might spark a deluge to rival the weather and last season's 6-1 thrashing at Hayes Lane. Within two minutes though Maidenhead had levelled the score with a goal to rival any I have seen following Maidenhead United. Receiving the ball with his back to goal on the edge of the penalty area, Eddie Hutchinson audaciously flicked the ball over his shoulder in the style of  Dennis Bergkamp, to beat his marker before firing the ball into the back of the net through Brown's legs.

The goal gave Maidenhead all the encouragement they needed to make their mark on the game and midway through the half the ball was in the back of the Bromley net once more thanks to a fatal touch from Ugo Udoji only for the referee to chalk the goal off due to an obvious push on the defender by Dave Tarpey. Strangely the referee saw nothing wrong with a similar challenge from an opposite source in the same part of the pitch a few minutes later.

Deep into stoppage time United shot themselves in the foot, undoing their hardwork by conceding a goal on the stroke of half time. A Joe Anderson free kick from the left wing saw Ademola rise without impediment just inside the penalty area to loop a header into the top corner.

Bromley then repeated the trick just ahead of the hour mark to seemingly seal the three points when Anderson, this time from the right, floated his free kick across the penalty area where it was met by Danny Waldren to score with his head. 

Soon after Mark Nisbet limped off to leave Maidenhead missing 75% of their first choice backline, but the Hayes Lane ground always seem to bring the best out of the Magpies and they did not stint in their efforts to get back into the game. This bore fruit when a driving run from Danny Green enabled Tarpey and Stefan Brown to exchange passes in the Bromley area, Tarpey finishing the move with a tidy finish.

Following the goal Maidenhead sustained their pressure with a series of set pieces but were unable to find an equaliser before Bromley took advantage of United's need to attack when they broke quickly, substitutes Reece Prestedge combining with Jamie Slabber to enable the latter to score a fourth goal and make the final scoreline appear a little lopsided.

The goal ended a frustrating afternoon for the Magpies when they showed that they have the quality going forward to compete with the best the division has to offer. Next week the top priority has to be achieving a first clean sheet of the season.

Goals Goals Goals

A positive development in modern football has been the increase in goals scored, coupled with a natural rise in the frequency of high scoring games/amazing comebacks. This was taken to an extreme on Tuesday night in Berkshire, with a fair sequel in West London the following night. Maidenhead have been in their fair share of such games this year, giving up a commanding lead against Farnborough on Easter Monday to lose 4-3 then almost doing the same on the final day of the season against Eastleigh before winning by the odd goal in seven at the last gasp. Furthermore a few weeks ago the second half performance against Hornchurch showed all the necessary attacking threat to respond to a half time three goal deficit, but the loss of a further goal not to mention a goalkeeper raised the stakes too high.

All of this doesn't sit too well with a purist like myself who sees the perfect game as a win with a clean sheet not that I was complaining when Maidenhead did almost enough to salvage a point at Bromley when the game was all but lost with half an hour to go.

As a whole the game showed how competitive the Alliance South is this season. People may grumble about the perceived quality in relation to previous seasons but aside from the polarised positions of Salisbury and Truro there is little to choose between the rest, it would certainly be a brave pundit to predict with any confidence who will occupy the places between 2nd and 21st come May.

Certainly Bromley look like a team better than their position of 19th at kick off. Furthermore for a team playing in the FA Cup First Round on Saturday their minds were in no way distracted from the task in hand. 

Following Saturday's superb win over Welling I was travelling in hope as well as expectation having been to all of Maidenhead's matches at Hayes Lane since 1997, an unbeaten run totalling eight games.

I was not unduly worried by Bromley's dominant start in a game which was open and played at a frenetic pace as precedent suggested that Maidenhead would soak up the pressure then score on the counter attack. Thus although Bromley appeared to be causing the Maidenhead defence all sorts of problems, the reassuring presence of Jesse Joronen in goal and the regular Magpie attacking forays meant all was going to plan. However when Bobby Behzadi shot narrowly wide when well placed on the edge of the six yard box, and Danny Waldren drilled home the opening goal with a super shot from the edge of the penalty area, concerns that this wasn't to be Maidenhead's night began to rise.

Joronen then showed his true class six minutes ahead of the break to make an unbelievable save from a Richard Pacquette header at the far post when the Finn looked beaten by a cross from appropriately enough Tony Finn. Joronen was helpless though to stop Waldren doubling the lead two minutes later when his free kick was deflected into the net.

At half time Drax made a double substitution bringing on Paul Semakula and Harry Pritchard for Alex Wall and Reece Tison-Lascaris but their effect was not felt immediately as Bromley did not sit on their lead, responding to the continued inane drumming and chants borrowed from Crystal Palace by maintaining their siege on the United goal.Once again it was Finn who spearheaded Bromley's threat down the left wing, and eleven minutes into the half his shot could only be parried by Joronen allowing Pacquette to prove the law of the ex by firing in the loose ball.

Three up and with little more than half an hour left Bromley at last looked spent. Now it was time for Maidenhead to have their say. Moses Swaibu was somewhat harshly judged to have brought down the tireless David Pratt in the penalty area but it was not to be Behzadi's night in front of goal as Joe Welch guessed the right way and saved his spot kick. 

Nevertheless Maidenhead are nothing but resilient this season and soon another chance presented itself as a Leon Solomon chip was only kept out by the far post. Shrugging off a second slice of bad fortune the Magpies continued to penetrate the Bromley half on either flank through Solomon and Pritchard, and were finally rewarded with twenty minutes remaining when the right back's cross was headed in at the far post by substitute Semakula.

Three minutes later the comeback was definitely on this time as Pritchard delivered from the left wing to Chris Flood at the far post, the loan player heading in his first goal for the Magpies. Maidenhead were now in their pomp, sweeping all before them, a great move with nine minutes left seeing Pritchard shoot just wide from the edge of the box, the young left winger not quite catching his shot sweetly enough. 

My unbeaten record now hung in the balance and thoughts turned to Andy Eaton's stoppage time equaliser on my first visit, a Full Members Cup tie in 1997 when most of the crowd appeared to leave rather than stay for extra time. However despite five minutes added on at the end the Magpies were unable to conjure up a third goal allowing Bromley to hang on for a win which sets them up nicely for their FA Cup tie at Fleetwood.