Kelly lashes home last gasp winner at Dover
They made it hard for themselves but cometh the hour, cometh the man as Josh Kelly popped up to win Saturday's game with Dover Athletic at the death.
As chances went begging in the second half it looked like being another one of those days for the Magpies, to add to last week's frustrating stalemate at Wealdstone.
But, in the third minute of stoppage time, the Magpies swung in one last corner from the left and, after a spot of pinball in the Whites' area, Maidenhead's sharpest shooter this season gleefully fired the ball into the roof of the net to send United's travelling fans behind the goal into raptures.
It may not have been his most important strike of the season, but it was significant none the less and drags the side 13 points clear of the drop zone with just six matches to play. They are now all but safe, but Kelly promised afterwards that he and his teammates would push all the way to the finish this season.
“We made it hard for ourselves,” he told Maidenhead United's Grace Scott after the match.
“We got a bit lucky with their sending off. We should have taken the three points and thankfully we did.
“It would have been a tough one to take if we’d have been held to a draw.
“I’m happy but there’s a lot more to be done.”
The visitors had plenty of chances in a dominant second half display but were denied by the agile goalkeeping of Alexis Andre. But, with time
running out, Kelly chipped in with his 16th goal of the season and afterwards suggested he still has targets left to meet.
“I’ve had targets but when I reach them, I try to get to the next one,” he said. “It’s a good three points, we need to get a few more and then stay up.
“It's always a confidence boost (to score) but there are things we still need to work on.
“It wasn’t too bad a performance, but it just wasn’t going in for us.
“Luckily, we got a scrappy one at the end, but we just need to keep digging deep and get a few more wins.
“The support of the fans always helps. They keep coming and hopefully they will to the rest of the matches we’ve got and keep pushing to keep us up.”