Late win a taste of what’s to come says match-winner
Maidenhead got the second half of their campaign underway with a crucial 2-1 win over Richmond 2nds on Saturday and their match-winner at Altwood School hopes that’s just a taste of what’s to come from the side in the coming weeks.
Sam Sly fired Richmond in front from a well executed short corner towards the end of the first half but Maids turned the game on its head after the interval, unlocking the Richmond defence with two goals from Keylock.
Chris Brown’s men have struggled for consistency following their promotion to the MBBO Premier Division 2 West last season, and are far from certain of avoiding the drop back down to MBBO Regional 1. However, they’re edging away from the clubs at the bottom and will fancy their chances of climbing the table further in the coming months.
They sit ninth ahead of Saturday’s trip to second placed Oxford OBU.
“It was important to get back into the second half of the season and pick up some points,” said Keylock.
“We had an unfortunate first half (of the season), losing by one goal in a lot of cases and getting some draws when we should have won. So it’s great to come back here and win.
“Hopefully it’s a taste of what’s to come in this half of the season.”
Brown’s half-time teamtalk galvanised Maids in the second half and got their just rewards when Keylock touched home Dave Tyler’s cross to make it 2-1 in the final minutes.
He’d earlier finished off a
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sweeping move to make it 1-1.
“It was really about keeping it simple. We’d come back after not playing for a bit and we were holding on to possession a bit too long. We weren’t sharp enough and we just needed to give the easy passes,” added Keylock.
“We were holding our positions more and keeping our heads a lot better than we did in the first half. I think that was the key.
“We used the space much better, kept the ball much better and kept things simple.
“We’d had quite a few chances and a few breaks and we did feel it was coming. I think in the first half of the season we struggled to convert (in games like that). It was great that we got the winner with a few minutes to go and could keep them out for the win.”
Keylock added: “We know that even against the top teams in the league we’ve played well. We haven’t struggled against anyone so there’s points in every game for us and I think we’re looking good for the second half.”