Magpies’ corner kick calamity
Wells’ miskick gift wraps points for Alty as United fail to perform in front of BT Sport cameras
Maidenhead United 0, Altrincham 1
Ryan Colclough scored directly from a second half corner to boost Altrincham’s play-off chances at the expense of hosts Maidenhead United in front of the BT Sport cameras on Saturday.
The victory, Altrincham’s second on the spin following Tuesday’s comfortable 3-0 success against King’s Lynn Town, was hardearned, but lifted Phil Parkinson’s side to within a point of the top seven.
The Magpies, who hadn’t played since their thumping 4-1 victory over Torquay United 10 days ago, looked like they were missing James Comley and Rohan Ince – away on international duty – as well as the injured Dan Sparkes.
A game of fine margins was settled midway through the second period when the visitors forced a corner from the left. Colclough’s ball into the box looked a poor one as it scuttled across the turf, but it was missed by George Wells who was covering at the near post and nestled in the bottom corner of Taye Ashby-Hammond's net.
Prior to that there was little to separate the sides in what was poor fare for those watching on BT Sport.
Altrincham began the brighter, buoyed by their mid-week win and should really have scored in the 20th minute when Josh Hancock was played in by a little flick but shot straight at Ashby-Hammond. The follow up fell kindly to Colclough but he could only half volley the ball against the crossbar.
United gradually played their way back into contention, with Ryan Upward scooping a presentable chance over the bar from the edge of the box on the half-hour and Manny Parry coming within inches of turning home George Wells’ excellent corner just before half-time.
It felt at the break like one goal would settle the game and that’s how it proved. Alan Massey fervently appealed for a penalty when his header from Wells’ free kick appeared to strike an Altrincham arm close to the goaline in the 50th minute.
Altrincham’s goal in the 65th minute then spurred the hosts into their best play of the match. Upward drifted a header wide after Nathan Blissett had seen his shot blocked in the 75th minute, before Upward tested Anthony Thompson in the Altrincham goal with a stinging volley two minutes later after the ball had pinballed around in the visitors’ penalty area. It wasn’t to be.
Danilo Orsi-Dadomo had a low cross deflected behind in the 89th minute, while substitute Tom Peers should really have killed the game off for the visitors when he went close twice in injury-time, first with a shot
that flew just over and then, as the seconds ticked away, after dancing into the Maidenhead area and pulling his shot just wide of Ashby-Hammond’s post.
W Altrincham boss Phil Parkinson felt his side were fully deserving of their narrow victory over Maidenhead on Saturday evening, despite the fortunate nature of their winning goal.
The game looked destined for a stalemate in front of the BT Sport cameras until Ryan Colclough netted for the visitors from a corner kick. His set-piece looked a poor one and should have been dealt with by George Wells on the front post, but the former Slough defender allowed the ball to skip underneath his foot and into the back of the net.
Despite the game’s only goal being something of a fluke, Parkinson told BT Sport afterwards he felt the visitors were deserving of the points thanks to their ‘superb’ first half showing and hard work to weather a late Maidenhead storm.
“It feels great,” he said. “Any win at this level feels fantastic. As I said earlier in the day, we’re a match for anyone if we take our chances and that’s what’s happened. To keep a clean sheet away from home and take that chance is really good.
“I felt we should’ve been two up. There was a moment in the first half where we could have scored the goal of the season. We opened them up with our build up play but weren’t able to finish it off, so it was really frustrating. First half, I thought we were superb. Second half, they really came at us and we had to weather that which I think we did that really well.
He added: “We dare to dream, don’t we? We’re positive. They’re great lads, they go to the end for us.
“Fundamentally we have to finish as close to the play offs as we can, if not, in them.”
Maidenhead’s front three of Nathan Blissett, Danilo Orsi-Dadomo and Josh Coley failed to link up well enough in the first half, and Parkinson was full of praise for how his players handled the Magpies attack, and Blissett in particularly.
He added: “He’s a handful. Every team at this level seems to have that.
“We don’t recruit players who are there for that purpose. We’re trying to play football on the floor so there are two ends of the spectrum there. He’s a big target man but our players have to deal with that every week. He is a handful and another day; he could get his head on one or two of them.
“But if you defend it well, use your body well and you outnumber him as much as possible, you give yourself half a chance.”