Marlow ‘lucky rather than good’ in cup win
Blues struggle to assert themselves against inexperienced Magpies
In football it’s sometimes better to be lucky than good, and that was certainly the case for Mark Bartley’s Blues on Tuesday night.
Up against Maidenhead United’s Academy side in the Berks & Bucks Senior Cup they struggled throughout to dominate the contest – against a side that have precious little experience in senior men’s football.
Bartley admitted afterwards it looked like the players had suffered from ‘stage fright’, such was their eagerness to impress the watching Alan Devonshire and Maidenhead management team.
Maidenhead vs Marlow is one of the oldest rivalries in football and, 54,402 days since they first played a competitive match back in 1871, this was another intriguing match up.
Prioritising the league campaign, Devonshire gave the academy boys a chance to impress against the Southern League Central side and, for much of the first half after taking the lead through Bradley Keetch’s strike, they were the better side.
The Blues made some changes at the interval and improved after the break, with Isaac Osei-Tutu firing home their equaliser in the 60th minute. The visitors then prevailed in the shootout, winning it 3-1 thanks to three saves from their keeper Simon Grant.
“Sometimes in cup competitions it’s better to be lucky than good,” said Bartley.
“And I think that’s what we were on Tuesday.
“We were disappointing in the first half, but made some changes at half-time and that made the difference. We made six changes from Saturday’s game but they were all first team footballers and you could expect any one of them to be playing in our league matches.
“Kameron English came on for us and he added a little bit extra to our play. It was enough to get us to penalties and I always fancy Granty (Simon Grant) to save a couple and that’s what he did.”
Bartley added: “I think some of the players suffered from stage fright. They were maybe guilty of trying too hard to put in a good performance, and impress the Maidenhead management team, but too many of them didn’t do their jobs in the first half and it was a pretty disjointed display.”
On the whole it was a disappointing display from the Blues but, in cup football, the result is more important than the performance.
Marlow came into the game off the back of a 2-1 win at Bedfont Sports on Saturday, where Jordan Brown netted twice in a ‘breathtaking’ first half display.
Bartley said: “I felt like the front end were first class on Saturday and we didn’t quite get the same spark on Tuesday which is disappointing. But some of the stuff we played in the first half on Saturday was breathtaking and I don’t think anyone could have argued if we’d been 4-0 up at half-time.
“We looked like we were trying to hold on to what we had in the second half but it was still a very good three points for us.”
Marlow host third placed Westfield on Saturday before visiting fourth placed Uxbridge on Tuesday night, two extremely challenging games, but the Blues will have to pick up results if they’re to get their play-off challenge back on track.