Weary United play their hand well against Cards
Although his side didn’t play well in the second half of Saturday’s victory over Woking, manager Alan Devonshire was delighted by the application and character shown by his players to come through for each other when they hadn’t been at their best.
After a difficult week, and draining trips to Stockport
County and Wealdstone, United ran out of steam against the Cards, having raced into a twogoal lead through Danilo OrsiDadomo’s brace. Woking looked the most likely side to score in the closing stages, but United’s battleweary troops put their bodies on the line to make sure of victory, their second in a row in the National League.
United will need to show the same resolve in the coming weeks with the side set to play nine more league matches before the end of May after Tuesday's surprising 1-0 home defeat to Weymouth.
If they're able to bounce back from the home defeat to the
Terras they'll have to do it the hard way, with the Magpies set to visit Kings Lynn Town on Saturday ahead of a home game with Wrexham just 48 hours later.
It’s a punishing schedule which already seems to be taking its toll on the Maidenhead squad.
Speaking after the final whistle on Saturday, Devonshire said: “First half we were very good and second half we weren’t so good. I think the games we played caught up with us a bit today.
“I said at half-time the next goal was crucial and if we’d got a third it would have been game over. But they scored the next goal, and it was a scrappy affair after that.
“They had a good chance, we had a good chance but listen, it’s the result that counts. We haven’t played well in the second half, but we’ve won the game 2-1 and that’s all that matters. When we’ve had a break, this season it seems to have taken us two or three games to get back up to speed again. Stockport took a lot out of us and again, even though we won 6-0 at Wealdstone, we had to roll our sleeves up to get the second and the third before the evening became easier.
“Credit to Woking, they’ve dug in and caused us some problems, but if you look at it, Taye hasn’t had a lot to do. We still created the better chances even if we didn’t play that well second half.
“That’s seven points from nine difficult games on pitches that are firming up now. Sometimes you don’t play well and get beat but today we’ve managed to win the game and that shows we have a lot of character.
“We’ve now got Weymouth, Kings Lynn and then Wrexham. The hardest one is going to be Saturday, Monday, especially if the weather is going to be like this.”
United's players were clearly running on fumes for the game against Weymouth on Tuesday.
The squad was due in for a light training session on Monday morning, but the impact of playing Stockport, Wealdstone and Woking within the space of seven days had clearly caught up with them against the Terras.
Calvin Brooks turned home Sean Shields' cross for the only goal of the game in the 30th minute and you sensed it wouldn't be United's evening when OrsiDadomo, who'd netted five goals in his previous two matches, saw a second half penalty saved by Ehtan Ross. The in-form striker had also clattered the post with a shot in the first half.
Victory lifted Weymouth to 18th in the table. They've had the edge over the Magpies this season, beating them twice in the league and once in the FA Trophy.