Maidenhead United look to master the art of the ugly win after beating Maidstone United

Alan Devonshire delivers his post-match teamtalk at Maidstone United. Photo: MUFC

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Maidenhead United managed to win ugly in Saturday afternoon’s ‘Maids Derby’ with Maidstone United at the Gallagher Stadium, and assistant boss Ryan Peters said afterwards they’ll need to master the art of winning when not at their best to stay in this season’s promotion race.

With title and promotion rivals seemingly winning week in and week out, Maidenhead will need demonstrate the same grit and determination to grind out results, just as they did at the weekend.

Having come into the clash off the back of their surprise FA Cup defeat to Faversham Town, Maidenhead once again struggled to reach the levels they showed in their magnificent 4-0 win over Bath City, however, they rolled up their sleeves to get the job done and protect the lead given to them by Matt Robinson’s first half strike.

Kama's first goal for Maidenhead secured all three points on Saturday afternoon! pic.twitter.com/h0r3j5BuoA

— Maidenhead United (@MUFCYorkRoad) September 22, 2025

Against a Stones side who’ve struggled for consistency of late, they managed to shut out their hosts to claim a fifth straight league win with Jordi Van Stappershoef pulling off a couple of smart second half saves.

Peters admitted afterwards they’ve played much better this season without collecting points; however, he feels they’ll need to repeat this sort of performance many times between now and the end of the season to be in with a shout of promotion.

In conversation with Scott Hargreaves after the game Peters said: “It wasn’t pretty, and I wouldn’t say we were particularly good either.

“There have been games this season where we’ve played better and not got any points. But to stay resilient, to stay in the game and produce a moment which wins us the game, we’re happy with that.

We’ll take it as often as we can (winning while not playing well). We’ll probably have 10 games like this when, with the best will in the world you try and get your flowing football going but it doesn’t always work that way. So, we’re asking the question of our players, can you stick in and be resilient, can you work hard and find a moment, and we’ve done that today.

“There will be more games this season where we’ll need that to happen. But the boys showed their character today.

“I think that’s going to be vital (goals from other sources). If you’re only going to get goals from your number nines, we’re probably not going to be able to maintain this standard and be as high as we want to be. We’re going to need goals right through the team and I think we’ve got a few throughout the team.”

Saturday’s result lifts the Magpies to fourth in the National League South table - above Hampton & Richmond Borough who were pegged back by a 96th minute equaliser in a 3-3 draw at Dover Athletic.

United now have a two-week break before resuming their league campaign at home to 11th placed Worthing, and while Peters feels the rest is needed and well-deserved, he knows they’ll have to refocus and play much better to claim a sixth straight league win at York Road on October 4. They have a rest weekend after their unexpected exit from the FA Cup at the hands of step 4 Faversham Town earlier this month.

“We’re now starting to build some momentum, if you park the FA Cup, and long may that continue,” he said.

“It feels good and the reason it feels good is that we can go back to the start of the season when it felt awful. We haven’t forgotten those moments, but there are some teams that are winning games week after week, so we’ve got to make sure we do the same to try and stay within the pack.

“Performances like this when you’re not particularly good are how we stay in the pack.

He added: “The rest might give these boys a little bit of a break.

“This period has been quite tough but we’re not going to step off it. We want to keep that run going as long as possible. We’ll get back to training and the hard work. Worthing are a good side so we’re going to have to be at our very best. We’re going to have to play better than we have done today and we’re raring to go.

“I also wanted to mention our fans, who were absolutely fantastic. They’ve seen us play at the start of the season and they kept on coming. Today they were incredibly loud. The final whistle goes, and they were still here 10/15 minutes later, screaming and shouting which is amazing to see.”