Devonshire pleasantly surprised by fitness levels
Maidenhead United FC
Alan Devonshire was pleasantly surprised by the sharpness of his players during Saturday’s goalless draw at Woking, the club’s first competitive outing in nearly a month.
The Magpies hadn’t kicked a ball in anger since their 4-0 victory over Wealdstone on Boxing Day, with a friendly run out against Brentford B the only other time they’d got some match practice in the meantime.
However, despite their lack of matches, and subsequent loss of fitness, they managed to match their hosts for most of the game and could have nicked all three points in the second half with a Nathan Blissett header which flashed wide of the post.
Victory for the Magpies might have been a little harsh on Woking, who carved out some decent chances of their own, and Devonshire was happy to accept a draw was probably a fair result. Ahead of last night’s (Wednesday) home game against Yeovil Town the Magpies were 11th in the table, still just a point off the play-off places with games in hand on most of their rivals.
“I was pleased,” said Devonshire. “We had a few boys out for different reasons, which meant other boys had a chance to come in. We also had a few out ill, Josh Coley had tonsilitis, so he wasn’t ready to start.
“Despite this I was pleased with our fitness levels. We lacked a bit of sharpness, which I knew we would, but for 90 minutes the effort was really good, and the boys deserve credit for the way they’ve trained these last three or four weeks.
“We could have nicked it, but a draw was probably a fair result. I’ll settle for that. We go into every game looking to win, but a point is better than nothing and it’s good to get another clean sheet. Hopefully, we can build on that now. I was just really pleased with our fitness levels. I thought some of the boys would tire fairly quickly, but credit to them they kept going until the end.”
United travel to Halifax Town this Saturday, with their hosts having ground out a goalless draw of their own at Wrexham on Tuesday night. Providing the season goes ahead as scheduled, the Magpies will be back on the road on Tuesday night for their re-arranged game at Wealdstone. Once those games are out of the way the Magpies will have played four more matches away from home than at York Road this season, and Devonshire is hopeful of some home comforts in the second half of the season.
“Three of this run of games will be away from home,” said Devonshire.
“Meaning we’ll have played seven at home and 11 away.
“That’s the way it’s worked out, but it will mean less travelling from now on. Saturday is one of our longer trips, and they’ve hit a bit of form recently.
“But we’re looking forward to it, we want to be back playing matches and have missed playing matches. Let’s get on with it.”