Plenty of games left, but margin for error shrinks for Maidenhead United

Harry Pritchard at Ebbsfleet United on Saturday. Photo: MUFC

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There are more than enough games left in the season for Maidenhead United to make up the points needed to move into one of the National League South play-off places.

That’s the view of interim boss Ryan Peters who was left somewhat perplexed by the Magpies display in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to promotion rivals Ebbsfleet United, a result which leaves the side in 12th place, now six points adrift of the top seven.

Peters felt his side were good for a large spell of Saturday’s clash at the Stonebridge Road Stadium - as good as they have been away from home all season in the first half in fact.

But three ‘glaring’ chances came and went for the visitors in the opening 45 minutes, and they lost their way in the second half before conceding three times in the final 20 minutes to go down to a deflating defeat.

Off the back of last weekend’s 1-1 draw at Chesham United, it means the Magpies have lost further ground on their promotion rivals. But, as Peters noted in an interview for the club after the final whistle, there’s still plenty of time and games to bridge that gap, hopefully starting at home to Bath City this evening (Tuesday).

“We’re really disappointed,” he said. “It’s going to sound strange to say this but It’s probably the best half of football we’ve played this season.

“We had three glaring chances which we haven’t taken. But you come in at half-time and think ‘brilliant’, if we step it up in the second half, we’ll be fine. We had a five-minute spell but after that we lost our way.

“The goals we’ve conceded are horrendous from our point of view. Clinical finishes from them but horrendous from our point of view. If you’re not going to take your chances at one end, at least be hard to beat at the other and we weren’t today.

“It should have been different. We have aspirations of cementing ourselves in the play-offs and we’ve been given two or three opportunities to do that and everything that’s been provided for us, we’ve failed, essentially.

“This is a good side, and they’ve been clinical with the three chances they’ve had, but we’ve had five chances and haven’t taken any of them. That’s the difference.

“We’ve got the confidence to know that if we concede a goal we know we can score. So, it shouldn’t have knocked the wind from our sails too much. The second goal which comes soon afterwards, probably did. We tried to make changes then but maybe too much damage was done. The point we got last week (at Chesham) would have looked like a great one had we come here and got a result. Now it doesn’t look like such a good one.”

Tonight's visitors Bath City have been meandering along in the bottom half of the league for much of the season, but they did win for the first time in four matches when they got the better of Worthing 3-2 at Twerton Park in their last league outing on January 24. 

This Saturday they took part in the Francis Hillier Premier Cup against Street FC where Jordan Avles scored four goals in a 5-0 victory. 

Peters said: “There are more than enough games to get into those play-offs. But we’ve got to find another run of results. That’s the second time this season we’ve let in three goals and up to then we’ve had one of the best defensive records in the league. We have to take our chances, but it should only take one goal to win a game, not three.”

The first meeting between the sides was one to remember for the Magpies. United won the game 4-0 with Josh Popoola scoring twice and Liam Dulson also getting on the scoresheet after Jack Batten had glanced in Kane Ferdinand's cross for an own goal.

Today's fixture will not be segregated.
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