Magpies fail to find their rhythm in the final third
Maidenhead United failed to build on last weekend’s encouraging display against Woking as they slumped to a 1-0 home defeat to Gateshead on Saturday.
The Magpies saw plenty of the ball throughout the game, however, they failed to do enough with it in the final third, an issue that’s affected them all season and their offensive stats remain a pressing concern.
This was the sixth game from 10 that they’ve failed to find the net and they’ve scored just seven times all season. Only bottom of the table Torquay United have managed fewer and, while it's still early days, they sit just two points off the bottom of a congested National League table.
After Dan Ward fired Gateshead in front in the 21st minute, taking advantage of some slack defensive play – and possibly a fortunate offside call – the Magpies struggled to get themselves back on level terms.
They fashioned some half chances, with Shawn McCoulsky smashing the best of them over the bar in the closing minutes, but it's clear this strike force has a few issues that need ironing out.
They’ll improve with the return of Sam Barratt and Dan Sparkes from injury, hopefully sooner rather than later, but in the meantime, they look like a side that lacks the guile or composure to break teams down on a regular basis.
Manager Alan Devonshire was fairly scathing of their performance after the final whistle on Saturday.
“That wasn’t a decent performance,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with that at all. The intensity of our play was poor, and they deserved to win. Good luck to them.
“We were poor and that wasn't good enough. I thought we were really poor all the way through. No intensity. I don’t know whether their goal was offside, but we weren’t good enough, they were better than us.
“From us I was expecting much more. We were poor. I’m not holding no punches; we were poor, and I’ve told all of them that out there. None of them got seven out of 10 and I’d expect most of my team to get seven out of 10. They weren’t good enough.”
United will have a tough task to bounce back as they visit leaders Chesterfield on Saturday.