Peters apologises after Daggers twist the knife
Maidenhead United FC: United go down to a damaging 4-1 defeat at Dagenham
Ryan Peters apologised to Maidenhead United’s travelling supporters after gifting Dagenham & Redbridge goals in Saturday’s 4-1 defeat, and he promised them they’d respond with an improved display next Saturday at Rochdale.
The Magpies had hoped to come flying out of the blocks at the Chigwell Construction Stadium and build on their impressive home display against Dorking Wanderers.
But instead, they were blunted by the Daggers who could easily have found the net before Harry Phipps smashed the hosts in front shortly after the half-hour mark. A second goal followed for Josh Rees within a few minutes and there was no way back for the Magpies, despite Tristan Abrahams halving the deficit midway through the second half.
The somewhat unfortunate concession of a penalty for a handball in the 83rd minute handed Dagenham the opportunity to restore their two-goal cushion.
Ryan Hill gratefully accepted the invitation, sending Craig Ross the wrong way from the spot.
By that stage the Magpies looked a beaten team already, but Lewis Page took advantage of some more slack defending to fire home a fourth Dagenham goal before the end.
After the final whistle, assistant manager Peters was at a bit of a loss to understand how the Magpies had gone from such a positive display against Dorking to this defensive calamity at Dagenham.
“It was an incredibly poor start, a really poor start,” said Peters. “The idea was that after our game last week, we’d come out and fly. We were in good spirits after that win, but our first half today was dreadful.
“You can’t give away goals against any team, and we gave them goals in the first half. We came back into in the second half, and I thought we’d rally after getting that goal back.
“But more uncharacteristic mistakes, we weren’t quite at our levels, and they punished us.
“We’re really frustrated. We had a really good performance last week and the results went for us on
Tuesday. We were thinking ‘brilliant’, let’s really come here and turn up. We had the M25 (weekend closure in both directions) and our fans still made the journey. It was set up for us to really perform and we didn’t in the first half.
“It’s still in our hands, if we keep winning games, we’ll be ok but they’re going to have to come quickly.”
One positive to take from the defeat is the form of Abrahams who has looked lively in attack for the Magpies since making the move from Welling United. He also now has a couple of goals to his name, and they’ll need him and others to continue firing if they’re to pick up the wins needed for survival.
“He is playing well and he’s scoring goals, which is important,” added Peters. “Reece Smith is scoring goals as well and we’ve got to get as many different people scoring goals as possible. But we also need to stop conceding so many goals. There’s still work to be done, but we’re now really looking forward to this stage of the season.”
The last few matches have been a roller-coaster for Maidenhead fans with the side winning 3-1 at Altrincham, losing 4-1 at AFC Fylde, beating Dorking 4-2 at home before collapsing to a 4-1 loss against the Daggers. With the side now just a couple of points and places above the bottom four, they could do with that win one, lose one trend continuing at Rochdale, however, the lack of consistency heading into the final few games of the season will be a concern.
Of all the sides in the relegation mix, Maidenhead also appear to have one of the toughest run ins, with four of the top seven still to be played.
“We’ll be working hard, because we didn’t today,” said Peters. “Our levels were way below where they should be. We need to go back to the training ground and work hard to make sure we can put in a performance next week. The motorway was closed, and I wasn’t sure how many fans would make it, but they came in their droves as usual. They were loud and proud and I’m sorry we couldn’t put on a performance, but we will next week.”