"No team beats us twice" – Magpies eye Farnborough payback in play-off push

Maidenhead United interim boss Ryan Peters has said he’s hopeful Saturday’s game at home to Farnborough will get the go-ahead from ground staff so that his Magpies side can atone for last weekend’s 3-0 defeat at Ebbsfleet United.

A couple of disappointing results have seen the Magpies fall seven points adrift of the top seven - with Saturday’s victors Ebbsfleet currently gripping onto the last of the play-off spots.

But they do have one or two matches in hand on most of the teams above them - following the postponement of recent home matches against AFC Totton and Bath City - and Peters is confident the Magpies can not only make up ground on their play-off rivals but cement themselves in the top seven before the end of the season.

With every disappointing result, the margin for error decreases, but Peters’ team still has 14 games left to find a way into the top seven, and they’ll be hoping for a morale-boosting win when they host Farnborough at York Road this Saturday.

“I spoke to Jason and he’s hopeful the game will be on. It would be good to get a game on as soon as possible after last Saturday,” said Peters.

“We’re taking refuge from the fact we played well in the first half. We did not capitalise on some of the chances we had to score. Ironically. Ebbsfleet then had pretty much the same opportunities and they were clinical. That was the difference.

“Their striker has 14 goals this season, so you do not give him opportunities in front of goal like that. We gifted them the first goal, one of our boys loses their man and he has a free header.

“That’s something that is within our control and we don’t do enough. Their second goal we get caught out of position and the third goal comes as we’re trying to chase a goal and they catch us on the break.

“Take nothing away from Ebbsfleet, they were very good, but based on our first half performance, we should have been clear and we weren’t.

“I’m not suggesting we should be amazing and that they shouldn’t have any opportunities in our box. But what I am suggesting is that when you are having periods when you’re not at your best and your opponents have the ball, at least be incredibly hard to beat, and we were so open for some of their goals. It was the opposite of being hard to beat.

“It was alarming and it was something we tried to address for the Tuesday game (against Bath City) which didn’t happen.”

He added: “At Ebbsfleet it was a good surface. We could play more football, and we created the opportunities to test the goalkeeper more and perhaps come in one or two goals up. We were very good for 60 minutes or so but once their first goal goes in, we lose our way a bit.”

Peters also feels the Magpies have scores to settle with Farnborough. Their visitors this weekend beat them 1-0 with a late goal from Dominic Poleon when the teams met back on October 25.

That was the start of a dispiriting six game losing streak in all competitions which eventually led to Alan Devonshire standing down from his role after 10 successful seasons. Interim management team Ryan Peters and assistant Aaron O’Brien have been doing an excellent job since then to steer the Magpies back into contention, but the next few weeks represents a crucial juncture in their season. Speaking this week, Peters admitted the chances won’t continue to present themselves, but they have one on Saturday.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s game, Peters said: “This is our third opportunity to try and get back closer to the playoffs, but those opportunities aren’t going to keep coming for us.

“We must take it if we’re going to get anywhere near those play-offs. No team is allowed to beat us twice, and they’ve already beaten us this season.

“Not only do we need to be at our best, but we need to treat every game as it’s a cup final.

“Not only do we want to be in and amongst those play-off places, we want to cement it as early as possible. There needs to be an element of resilience to be in as advantageous a position as possible. Letting the goals in in the manner we did on Saturday, wasn’t helpful.

Peters added: “Farnborough are a strong outfit with some good players. I know they’ve had some changes to personnel of late and some indifferent results, but they had a good result against Eastbourne so they’re not a team we can take lightly. But we’re at home and this is a chance for us to put in a good performance in front of our supporters while understanding that no team beats us twice.”