Marlow's winning run halted as Milton Keynes Irish punish second-half lapse

Mitch Parker. Credit: Theo Edwards

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Marlow’s recent good run in the Southern League Central Division was ended by Milton Keynes Irish in a traditional game of two halves at Manor Fields on Saturday afternoon.

Coming into the game off the back of four consecutive league wins over some decent Central Division sides, the Blues bossed the first 45 minutes and deservedly took the lead through Mitch Parker in the 17th minute.

Shamar Moore and Naheer Nawaf were involved in the build-up, with Nawaf finding Parker who smashed the visitors into a deserved lead.

Marlow manager Mark Bartley felt his side might have scored two or three goals from the dominant opening they had in the game, but Irish levelled matters in the 36th minute when Mason Spence scored from a well-worked free kick.

Bartley hoped his side might impose themselves on their hosts when play resumed in the second half, but they just dropped off their recent levels for a half-an-hour spell and Irish were able to capitalise.

James Meadows (68') fired home to give the home side the lead. Milton Keynes then produced a good move for Harry Guess to score their third in the 81st minute and Meadows second of the game - from the penalty spot in the 88th minute - confirmed a disappointing result for the recently resurgent Blues.

After the game, Bartley wanted to draw a line under their second half display and hopes his players can take the positives from how well they played in the first 45 minutes.

“It was a traditional game of two halves,” he said in a post-match interview for the club,

“First half I thought we were very good. The attacking play was fantastic from us in the first half. High up the pitch, we probably should have come away with two or three and then we’ve obviously conceded to a free kick which is well worked to give them credit.

“From then though it’s about us going out and doing what we did in the first half in the second half. But in the second half we didn’t apply ourselves and set ourselves up to win the game. We ended up conceding a penalty, which is a penalty, but we’re disappointed with the second goal, and the third goal is well worked from them.

“You then turn around and it’s 4-1 but that comes after a very, very good first half from our point of view.

“I don’t think we’ve created as many chances in a half of football all year. This is how strange this game is. Credit to them, they’ve made some adjustments at half-time, but we know we didn’t do enough at the beginning of the second half to give ourselves an opportunity to win it.”

The result sees Marlow stay in 14th place, but they are now nine points off the play-off places. In recent weeks Marlow have been slowly climbing the table off the back of some impressive performances and results, and they’ll look to get themselves back on track at 18th placed Aylesbury United on Wednesday evening.

Bartley added: “We’ve been on a good run; the boys have been doing well recently so it’s about not getting too overly focused on that. It’s about making sure we respond, and I’ve said to the boys, the way we’ve set up in the second half, that doesn’t happen again.

“We just need to go and do what we’ve been doing recently. The first 20 minutes of the second half wasn’t good enough, but we’ve discussed it and drawn a line under it. I’d rather focus on what we did well in the first half and on how well we’ve done in the last five or six games. We just need to go there and make sure we execute properly.”

Fifteenth placed Flackwell Heath are also back in league action this week when they host 13th placed Beaconsfield Town tomorrow evening (November 25) at Wilks Park.