Disciplined Magpies blunt Daggers to reach last 16 of the FA Trophy

Magpies players celebrate their FA Trophy victory. Photo credit: Maidenhead United FC

--

Dagenham & Redbridge 0, Maidenhead United 2

From one of their worst performances of the season at Scunthorpe United last week, Maidenhead United produced one of their best to book their place in the fifth round of the FA Trophy at the expense of hosts Dagenham & Redbridge.

At the third time of asking this season, having lost to the Daggers in the league and the FA Cup this season, Maids got the better of their National League rivals and did so in relatively comfortable fashion.

Having taken the lead through Shawn McCoulsky's early finish and doubled it just before the break through Charlee Adams' penalty, Maidenhead were determined and disciplined throughout the second half to put their name in the hat for the last 16.

This was also their second clean sheet in three matches, and a wonderful response to last week's desperately poor 3-0 defeat at Scunthorpe.

Having failed to find the net in their previous two encounters, Maidenhead didn't have to wait long to celebrate a goal at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.

Only two minutes were on the clock when McCoulsky was played in on goal and he picked out the bottom corner with a clinical finish.

Alexis Andre Jr was back between the sticks in place of Dan Gyollai for this Trophy tie, and he did brilliantly to keep out an Omar Mussa free kick that was headed goalwards in the 19th minute.

The Daggers grew into the game, but they were blunted by the Magpies disciplined defensive game. They saw plenty of the ball but failed to play through the Magpies' press on many occasions, while the visitors were able to successfully deal with a series of corners won by the home side. Junior Morias had one curling effort that flew just wide but other than that, Maidenhead's goal was relatively untroubled.

Having withstood that pressure, the Magpies then swooped to score a second in the 45th minute and the game swung heavily in their favour.

Elliot Johnson was red carded for a challenge in the area and Adams kept his cool from 12 yards to give Alan Devonshire's men breathing space heading into the interval.

The Daggers made a host of changes at half-time to try and haul themselves back into the tie with 10 men, but Maidenhead came through the half relatively unscathed. Morias put an effort narrowly wide in the 67th minute but that's as good as it got for the hosts.

Devonshire made some canny substitutions, with Koby Arthur, Reece Smith and Emile Acquah coming on to replace Dan Sparkes, Adrian Clifton and McCoulsky, and those changes helped the Magpies shut down the game.

Maidenhead will find out who they play in the fifth round when the draw is made on Talksport2 from 3pm on Monday.

The Magpies won't have long to savour this success though. They're back in league action at Altrincham on Tuesday evening, while they'll welcome the Daggers to York Road in the league on Saturday afternoon.

United are 17th in the table, a position that hasn't been impacted by today's results. They remain seven points above the drop zone.