United and staying upbeat
Maidenhead United FC: Peters struggles to make excuses despite continuing COVID-19 and injury problems
They’ll try to remain ‘upbeat’, but a disappointed Ryan Peters was struggling to make excuses for the Magpies lacklustre display in Saturday's 4-0 defeat to Solihull Moors at York Road.
In the aftermath of one of the Magpies poorest displays of the season the assistant manager was struggling to put his finger on why things went so badly wrong for the home side, however, they were thrown the curve ball of discovering more COVID cases in the camp hours before kick-off.
They'd come into the clash with a bit of optimism, having ended a run of four straight league defeats with an impressive performance in the 1-1 draw at Southend United in mid-week.
But any pre-match hope they might be able to build on that display quickly fizzled out in an insipid first half display that matched the weather – it was dreary, dank, dismal.
“Tuesday was a brilliant performance,” Peters told Maidenhead United's media officer Grace Scott.
“We should have come away with three points, but we didn’t, but the performance was very good. And we wanted to take that into today’s performance. But in 45 minutes we managed to undo everything we did on Tuesday. Second half was better but by then we were already 3-0 down. It’s not the way we wanted to start the game, especially after Tuesday’s game.”
Flat from the opening minutes, the home side were soon chasing shadows as Moors popped the ball around the sloping York Road pitch.
Joe Sbarra gratefully received the present of a hashed United clearance to turn the ball home from a corner in
the 11th minute and Harry Boyes waltzed through the Magpies backline to double the visitors lead in the 40th minute. A killer third goal arrived on the stroke of half-time, Jamey Osborne firing home from distance and, as the players trudged back to the dressing rooms in the pouring rain, the game was as good as done.
Maidenhead were marginally improved after the break, and Reece
Smith passed up a few chances to reduce the arrears, but Moors still held the upper hand and scored a fourth through Justin Donowa after James Holden had pushed out a shot from Ryan Barnett in the 58th minute.
There are mitigating factors for the Magpies poor form of late, and they’ve been there all season.
They have three or more players still out after contracting COVID and a further four on the sidelines through injury, but Peters didn't feel they could excuse away Saturday's underwhelming display.
“It was flat, and it shouldn't have been after Tuesday,” he said.
“I’m not going to make any excuses, we’ve got three positive cases, we’ve got seven boys out. Things had to change dramatically when we got here today. Maybe that’s played a bit of a part, but that doesn’t excuse the effort in the first half.
“We want these boys back as quickly as possible; we’ve got a hefty Christmas period coming up and the sooner we get to the 11 the gaffer wants the better. We go into training, and we’ll work as hard as we can. We hope that when they’re at home or go into a shop, they don’t contract anything, but essentially, we’re on tenterhooks for every test hoping we’ll come through unscathed.
“Today is done,” added Peters.
“We’re going to stay upbeat. We’re halfway through the season, we’ve got another half to go, and we’ll go from there.”
Maidenhead would have hoped to bounce back in the FA Trophy this weekend, but due to the number of COVID cases still present in the Magpies camp the club has withdrawn from the competition. As a result Saturday's match against Maidstone United at York Road has been cancelled and their opponents have been given a bye into the next round.
The Magpies are now set to get back to league action at one of their relegation rivals, Wealdstone, on Boxing Day, Sunday, December 26.