‘It’s going to go One of two ways’
Maidenhead United FC: Upward says Magpies will either be well
When the Magpies run out to play Yeovil Town at York Road on Saturday it will have been 21-days since their last competitive match at home to Wealdstone on Boxing
Day.
The side’s lack of competitive action could be an issue, with manager Alan Devonshire fearing the break may have stripped away some of the side’s match sharpness and momentum following their emphatic 4-0 victory over the Stones.
But midfielder Ryan Upward, who scored United’s first goal in the Boxing Day rout, hopes they’ll go into Saturday’s clash feeling refreshed rather than sluggish and off the pace. The squad have been working hard in training, and also had a run out against a strong Brentford B team last weekend, but the break – at a time when opponents Yeovil have found some form – may not have come at the right time.
“I was speaking to Sam Barratt about this today,” said Upward. “And I said to him it’s going to go one of two ways. It’s either going to be very good that we’ve had the break and we’re refreshed, or we might not be as sharp as them. Hopefully, we’ve been training very well, doing a lot of stuff on fitness, and I’m just hoping we can get a result on Saturday.
“We also played Brentford in a friendly. It was a good run out for the boys who needed minutes, but competitiveness wise it’s not quite the same. Middle of the season you don’t want to be playing friendlies like that. But it was just for the fitness side of things. Brentford on the day proved to be very good, and I think a few of them started the next day in the League Cup as well.
“This season has been very good for us really. We’ve been doing really well. The break probably hasn’t helped us, but teams are beating each other all over the place. We’ve managed to get results at places like Notts County and Wrexham and having no fans in the ground for those matches has probably helped us.”
It’s been a ‘surreal, strange’ campaign in the eyes of Upward, but he’s keen for the campaign to continue and hopes there won’t be too many more COVID-19 related interruptions with the Magpies currently aspiring to a top half finish or perhaps even more.
“If you’re winning games and you’ve got a good team morale you’re definitely going to enjoy, regardless of the fans being there or not,” he said.
“When I’m physically on the ball, you don’t
even hear anything anyway. It’s when you’re out of possession, or when you go a goal up and you score, that’s when the atmosphere is lightning. That’s when you miss having a crowd.
“It felt like we were playing training games at the start of the season and it seemed a bit uncompetitive because there were no fans backing you. But then we started doing well, getting results, and moving towards the top of the table and that’s our motivation now regardless of whether there are fans there or not.
“We should be taking advantage of these weird times by continuing to win and get positive results. Even Torquay, that was one of the worst games we’d played all season and they were top of the league, but they only beat us 2-1. We only lost by one goal even though we had a very, very off day.
“When we’re on it, like when we battered Wealdstone 4-0 and when we beat Wrexham away and Notts County away, it goes to show that we deserve to be up there in and around the play-offs.”
The Magpies first target this season will be getting to the 50-point mark needed for survival, but Upward believes this current crop of players can achieve much, much more.
He’s never been relegated as a player and doesn’t believe there’s any reason to be negative about their chances of challenging for a play-off position. A win over Yeovil on Saturday would kick-start that challenge in the best possible way.
“I’ve never been relegated in my career and I never really think about it to be honest,” he said. “I’d much rather think about getting up the table and driving for the play-offs.
“I don’t want us to be negative or pessimistic, you’ve got to look up rather than down, and with the squad we’ve got this year we shouldn’t be looking down, we shouldn’t be looking at the relegation zone. I know it’s a congested league and everyone beats everyone else, but our away form is very good, and we know how to get results. The 50-point mark, I don’t even want to look at that I just want to look up and look at the play-offs.”
“We’re probably playing them at the wrong time, because they’re in form now,” said Upward. “But let’s not forget they did get beat 6-1 on Boxing Day. Every game is a 50-50 in this league. We’ll have to come out, be compact and we’ll find out on the day what tactics we’ll go with.”