Race for the Magpies’ golden boot heats up
Maidenhead United FC: Three players currently in contention to be club's top scorer
Maidenhead United have healthy competition for places all over the pitch, while a healthy battle is also ensuing at the top end of the field between three players all hoping to be crowned the club’s top goalscorer.
Earlier this season it looked very likely that Sam Barratt would walk away with the club’s golden boot after returning from an injury-hit spell at Southend United. The former Bracknell Town player bagged nine goals as the Magpies made up for a poor start to the season and climbed into the play-off positions.
His eye for goal hasn’t been quite so sharp in recent matches, but United have had several players shoulder the burden to maintain their challenge for a top seven finish. Danilo Orsi-Dadomo struggled for goals in the early weeks of the season, following his move
from Hampton & Richmond Borough in the summer. But a purple patch in recent weeks has rocketed him level with Barratt at the top of the charts. On Saturday he netted twice to help the Magpies to a 3-2 win over Halifax Town to add to his brace in Wednesday’s 4-2 home win over Yeovil Town. He was also on target from the spot in the club’s 4-0 win over Wealdstone on Boxing Day.
Another moving into contention for top goalscorer is Josh Coley, who came off the bench to bag the winner for United on Saturday. Peters hopes competition between the three of them and others in the squad - will push each other on to even greater scoring feats.
He said: “It’s healthy. Sammy and Danilo each have nine and Coley has five.
“We’d like to have a few more goalscorers as well, we’re being greedy of course. But if they’re
all pushing each other to be top goal scorer, you’d imagine they’d go on to score a few more.”
Orsi-Dadomo and Coley grabbed the headlines at The Shay, but it was the team performance which most impressed Peters, especially the contribution of James Comley who’s only recently returned from injury. Barratt may not have got his name on the scoresheet but was also heavily involved in Orsi-Dadomo’s second and Coley’s strike.
“We’re over the moon to have won a tough game like that.
“We knew it would be difficult with the early start this morning and having not played so many games for four weeks. But we played well. We let in a few more than we’d have liked but the performances have been brilliant.
“We’ve now got more than one person scoring. If you look
at our last few seasons, we’ve had one man scoring the goals for us, but if you look across the board, we have three or four potential top scorers and if they’re not scoring, they’re assisting. We’ve also got boys pushing each other for places and the morale in the camp is brilliant. It feels like the blend is just right.”
“Coms has come in and been terrific,” said Peters. “No one would have known that he’d been out so long through injury. He’s taken it all in his stride.
“We know he’s got tremendous ability, but we thought it would take him a while to adjust to getting back to that match tempo. With Uppy (Ryan Upward) and Rohan
(Ince) alongside him, the three of them look terrific.
“Josh Kelly also came on for a few minutes as well so we’re getting boys coming back slowly but surely.”