Mags run Dorking ragged
Peters impressed by the quality of Maidenhead’s finishing in crucial home win
There was a lot riding on the outcome of Saturday's clash against Dorking Wanderers at York Road, with many Maidenhead United fans calling it their side's most important game since the club was promoted to the National League back in 2017.
Whether that was the case or not, this one could be accurately described as a 'six-pointer' with the Magpies heading into the clash just a point and a couple of places above the drop zone, and visitors Dorking in similarly dire straits.
However, the Magpies produced one of their most accomplished attacking performances of the season - particularly at home - rifling in three beautiful goals in the first half before finishing the job late in the game after Wanderers had pulled a goal back to make it 3-2 mid-way through the second half.
Most in black and white impressed at York Road, with assistant boss Ryan Peters saying the management team had talked about delivering a performance for the fans after last weekend's dire 4-1 defeat up at AFC Fylde.
He wasn't let down, with the excellent Sam Beckwith stroking the hosts in front from just inside the area in the 10th minute, and the Magpies' goals got better and better from then on.
Reece Smith then marked his England C call up in the week with one of those gliding runs from just inside his own half, the midfielder taking the ball to the edge of the box before firing past Harrison Male.
Jayden Mitchell-Lawson then bettered that strike with a sweeping left-foot finish in the 41st minute having slalomed past several Dorking players on a run that started in his own half.
But the moment most Maidenhead fans will remember from this one occurred in the 89th minute when new signing Tristan Abrahams - many people's man-of-the-match on Saturday - intercepted a wayward pass and ran in on goal, checking back inside his marker and sending Male the wrong way with a shot into the roof of the net.
The scenes in the Bell Street End were certainly memorable and the Magpies will be hoping this win can spur them on to safety. It lifts them to 16th in the table, four points clear of the drop zone even after Tuesday's game against Hartlepool United was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch.
Speaking afterwards, Peters said: “These are nervy games when you look at the table. It means a lot to both teams. We needed to put in a performance after last Saturday and we got that. I thought we were really good value first half. We got a little bit deep in the second half and had to play on the counter a lot more. But we were worthy winners.
“It’s good to be able to give these boys some recognition because those goals were superb. We have some great talent going forward. If we can keep that talent scaring defenders, we’ll score a lot more goals.”
He added: “We've got the second lowest in terms of goalscoring, so we'd like to change that. It's good that we've been scoring goals lately, but we want to keep our backline as compact as possible, working as a team rather than just a back four. If we do that it should mean we only have to score one goal in a game. At times we've been a little bit stretched, but we've got some big games coming up and we must be ready for them.
“This season I'm not surprised (that we won the game after conceding to make it 3-2), we've got some incredible characters in the squad. Alan Massey, I don't want to single anyone out, but he hasn't been playing recently, but he's come in and he's been superb.
“We can only take it one game at a time, but we're trying not to be in the position we were in last season, which means we've got to get as many points as we can.
The Dorking boss Marc White was less impressed with his side after the 4-2 defeat. He said: “It’s a woeful defensive performance. We lost the battle in midfield. We were massively second best in the midfield. There were so many mistakes in the build-up for their goals it was quite remarkable.
I’ve said to the defenders, if you need to play that deep, you shouldn’t be playing football, and that is the bottom line. Sometimes a manager’s job is hard because there is so much that is wrong, it’s remarkable.”