Colclough's freak goal typified poor performance
Maidenhead United boss Alan Devonshire felt Altrincham’s goal, scored directly from a second half corner – and unfathomably missed at the near post by defender George Wells – typified United’s poor display in front of the BT Sport cameras on Saturday.
Ryan Colclough whipped in a poor delivery from the set piece, but as Wells went to hack it clear he swung and missed the ball and it skipped through into the back of Taye Ashby-Hammond’s net for the only goal of the game.
United failed to match the high intensity of their most recent performances against Chesterfield and Torquay United, but Devonshire insisted the players would dust themselves down and go again in this weekend’s bank holiday double header at Weymouth on Good Friday and home to Eastleigh on Easter Monday.
There were some mitigating circumstances. They lacked midfield options, with James Comley and Rohan Ince on international duty representing Montserrat, and Dan Sparkes, Shaun Donnellan and Josh Smile all out injured, the latter two with season ending knocks. But Devonshire refused to use this as an excuse for what he felt was a poor allround display.
“I thought we were poor today, it’s probably the worst we’ve played for a long, long time,” said Devonshire after the final whistle.
“They were better than us. We could say it was a poor goal, but for me that was the game for us, it was just a poor game, a poor performance.
“We’ll dust ourselves down and move on. It’s just a bad day at the office today, we were poor, and I have no excuses at all. We’re disappointed.
“I wish I knew why. We played with a high intensity the last couple of games, and again we’ve had a break, but I don’t know. We’ll have to get on with it, train hard and look to Friday and Monday.”
In truth there wasn’t a great deal of quality from either side, but the game’s better and more incisive moments came from the visitors.
However, they were handed their 63rd minute advantage by Wells’ air-shot as he attempted to clear Colclough’s corner. Prior to that both sides had struggled to break down each other’s defences and, although Maidenhead improved after falling behind, they failed to really test Altrincham keeper Anthony Thompson.
Devonshire added: “At the end of the day I expect my defender to knock that out and it’s gone under his foot. But he’s done well for us, Wellsy (George Wells). That for me typified our performance. We’ve got Weymouth now and then Eastleigh, two big games and hopefully we can get back on the right track.”
United dropped to 15th following Saturday’s defeat but have 16 games to play before the end of the season and plenty of time to revive their play-off challenge.
Last week’s decision to null and void Dover Athletic’s results this season means they remain only six points off the top seven with matches in hand on all of the sides above them.
Weymouth are yet to play the Magpies in the league this season, but the Terras did knock Devonshire’s men out of the FA Trophy earlier in the campaign following a 3-2 home win.
Monday’s opponents Eastleigh are – like Maidenhead - one of a host of sides in with a decent shout of finishing in the playoffs. United got the better of them earlier in the season thanks to a solitary Alex Addai strike.