Kane calls for Maidenhead United to go back to basics

Performances have been better than results of late for Maidenhead United and, while they picked up plaudits for their impressive display against leaders Notts County on Saturday, they once again came away without any points.

After claiming back-to-back wins over Aldershot Town and Eastleigh last months, they've found points much harder to come by in recent weeks - although you could make a case for the team playing, and competing, just as well.

They let themselves down at Maidstone two weeks ago, conceding three goals in a league game for the first time since the opening day of the season at Notts County. And, while they fought back to claim a point from last week's home game against Dorking Wanderers, they should really have taken one of their many chances to win the game in the second half.

On Saturday they went toe-to-toe against a Notts County side tipped to become National League champions this season, fighting back from 3-1 down at half-time to level the game with strikes from Emile Acquah, who netted two on the day, and Kane Ferdinand. But, while Maidenhead had the commitment, Notts County had the quality, and the league's top goalscorer, Macaulay Langstaff won the game late on with a wonderful volley to make it 4-3.

Saturday’s result sees them slip to 16th in the table, still eight points off the relegation places and only five off the play-off spots.

Ferdinand said: “Yeah, to get back to 1-1 in the first half we thought we’d done well but then we got sloppy towards the end of the first. We also thought we did well to get it back to 3-3. It’s a great finish for them but the way we fought back twice, we felt we deserved something from the game. We had to believe. We knew we could get at them because of what had happened in the first half. They’re a very good team with the ball, but we knew we could hurt them. We managed to do that, but they scored a good fourth goal. They showed their quality throughout the game, and they dominated possession, but we knew we could make it tricky for them at set pieces. We scored from the first one. The second one, a long throw in caused problems for them again. We thought we deserved something from the game.”

On scoring to make it 3-3 in the 67th minute, Ferdinand added: “It was alright, I was due one, I’ve had to wait since August. It’s nice to get one but it doesn’t count for anything because we didn’t get a result.”

“Prior to the Maidstone game we were in a decent run of form, beating Eastleigh and there was another good win before that as well. We have been playing well, so we’ve just got to get back to basics.

“We’re shipping too many goals at the minute, but the performances haven’t been too bad.”