Maidenhead United make it three matches unbeaten after draw with Oldham Athletic

Maidenhead United 1, Oldham Athletic 1

A Charlee Adams penalty kick ensured honours were even between Maidenhead United and Oldham Athletic on Saturday afternoon, with the draw extending the Magpies’ unbeaten streak in the National League to three matches.

Despite having the better of the first half at York Road, the Magpies trailed 1-0 at the break thanks to Ben Tollitt’s quick thinking at the back post.

However, the home side fought back to claim a share of the spoils with Adams making no mistake from the spot 15 minutes from full-time.

“We’ve got mixed emotions this week because it has been a really productive one, we’ve got seven points from a possible nine,” said assistant manager Ryan Peters.

“But, when we got it back to 1-1 today, we were sure we were going to get the winner. Their goal was lucky, and we probably should have scored before it.

“That shows how far we’ve come when we’re not over the moon with a point. We wanted all three.”

Maidenhead threatened first in this encounter with Ashley Nathaniel-George rippling the side netting with a powerful shot only to be deemed offside by the linesman in the 21st minute.

Zico Asare tried to pick out a teammate in the box next with a cross on the right wing before Mike Fondop blasted the ball over the crossbar when well-placed.

The deadlock was broken in the 33rd minute very much against the run of play.

Having stolen the ball off Asare, Fondop threaded a low cross into the box with Magpies skipper Alan Massey guilty of directing the ball goalwards via a trailing leg.

Tollitt, nevertheless, made sure it crashed the back of the net with a sliding finish at the back post, giving the Latics a fortuitous advantage at half-time.

A brilliant save by Dan Gyollai kept out Fondop’s close range header and prevented Oldham from furthering their lead just two minutes after the interval.

Under some substantial pressure from the Latics, Asare’s afternoon was over before the hour mark as he was forced off through injury and replaced by Sam Barratt.

The winger’s first incident of note was drawing a foul on the right side of the pitch while Emile Acquah and David Okagbue both picked up bookings for an altercation.

A strong hand from the visitors’ stopper Magnus Norman denied Acquah an almost-certain goal in the 68th minute before the forward won the Magpies a penalty with a header nodded into James Carragher’s arm.

Grabbing the ball and placing it down with authority, Adams thumped the ball into the back of the net in the 75th minute the with the successful spot kick being his second in five days.

Some fouls thereafter slowed the pace of the game and inside the final 10 minutes, the only notable opportunity came from Adams who almost caught out Oldham with a well-worked set piece.

Despite not taking maximum points from the encounter, Alan Devonshire’s men do climb up the National League table. Owed to the other results this weekend, they find themselves in 13th place.