Flu-hit Maidenhead held at Hemel, but Peters sees positives in hard-earned point

Maidenhead’s Manny Onariase made a crucial late block. Photo: MUFC

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Ryan Peters was satisfied with Maidenhead United’s goalless draw at Hemel Hempstead Town on Saturday as for large spells he felt the Magpies were ‘second best’ in the game.

United made the short trip to Vauxhall Road hoping to extend their winning run in the National League South to five matches.

But they came up against a stubborn Tudors side who were higher in the table than them and in reasonable form themselves.

Despite their failure to claim a fifth straight win, Peters was happy to see his side grind out a positive result when they weren’t at their best.

Chances were relatively thin on the ground for the visitors – who had been in free scoring form in the lead up to the clash. Josh Umerah nodded a decent opportunity wide of the post while Liam Dulson and Josh Popoola flashed efforts just wide. Hemel also forced Jordi Van Stappershoef into several good saves and Manny Onariase made a crucial late block to prevent the hosts from taking all three points.

Speaking to Maidenhead’s Neil Maskell after the final whistle, Peters said: “I think we’re satisfied with a point as we were second best for large spells of this game.

“There are parts of our game that really need to improve, but I think this is the making of us at the moment – that when we’re not at our best we can still keep a clean sheet.”

United had a difficult training week ahead of Saturday’s game, with players having missed training through illness and injury. A few of them were thrown straight into the battle on Saturday having had little to no preparation time.

“We had flu ravage us in the camp,” added Peters. “We had a few boys that haven’t trained all week. Some boys still had to play today even though they haven’t trained.

“We’re hoping that can be better for the Slough game, there are also a few injuries which is why we made a few changes. We’re hoping to have a few boys back for the next game but now it’s touch and go.”

Maidenhead now have a few days to prepare for their derby clash at home to Slough Town on Boxing Day. It may sound a little Scrooge-like, but Peters and his squad won’t have much time off to enjoy the Christmas season ahead of the clash. With this being the first league clash between the two rivals for 25 years, the Maidenhead interim boss also knows how important this clash is to both sets of fans.

“For the ones that were with us when we played them last year in the cup, we weren’t very good,” he said. “That will very much be in our focus, and we need to gain points where we can. We’re up for this one.

“There’s not too much Christmas spirit here. We’re going to be training. There are elements that we must improve on, and we’ll use the next two training sessions to make sure we do. We’ll then have Christmas Day off but then come back in for the game on Boxing Day.”