Fightback comes too late

MAIDENHEAD men’s 1sts suffered their second defeat in as many weeks in a close-fought 3-2 encounter with local rivals, and league-leaders, High Wycombe on Saturday.
The first half did not go to plan at all for the host side, as Wycombe strolled into a 3-0 half-time lead courtesy of a Duncan Parnis hat-trick of short corners.
A more spirited second-half display saw Maids dominate Wycombe, creating a number of good chances which failed to be converted until Alan Hodson found himself with time in the D and clinically flicked the ball into the net.
Tempers flared as the teams began to feel the pressure, and midway through the half both sides were reduced to nine men after some pretty tasty exchanges in typically local derby style.
Maids ended with a well finished Phil Cowell goal, but it was too little, too late as Maids came away feeling they had missed an opportunity to upset Wycombe’s title hopes.    

Maidenhead skipper Neel Sood said: “We have played worse than that and won this season, so it’s a disappointing result.
“We played the better hockey, created more chances and spent far more time in their territory. But it was a huge improvement in terms of performance from last week, we did the basics better and were much tighter than we have been.
“We’ll need to take that into this weekend because it will not be an easy game.”
On Saturday, Maids travel to Aylesbury.