Maidenhead United Women hope to bounce back at Bristol Rovers after heavy league defeats

Maidenhead United Women in action against Swindon Town at the County Ground. Photo credit: Darren Woolley

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It is another trip down the M4 for Maidenhead United on Sunday as they visit the EFL home of newly promoted Bristol Rovers, a successive second ‘stadium’ game for Ed Jackson-Norris’s young team.

Last Sunday, the Magpies performed superbly for an hour in front of more than 400 spectators at the County Ground, Swindon.

Trailing 1-0 to a goal struck from fully 25 yards, United hit the Swindon crossbar and were denied by the hosts goalkeeper before two mistakes inside three minutes were punished by the league leaders who went on to secure a brutal 6-0 scoreline that no-one would have seen coming at half time.

It has been a tough fortnight for the team and manager Ed reflected after the game: “we did really, really for the first hour. The general feeling at half time was that was one of our better forty-fives of the season.” The manager continued: “The last half hour was a sign of where we are. We are a young group and we are group with bags of potential.

“But with how young and inexperienced we are and the state we are in after successive heavy defeats – a number of the group have not played a great deal of National League football before – it means there is an element of naivety in our performances. Unfortunately we show these periods of naivety we are getting punished quite badly.”

Ed added: “Three of the sides we have played so far I feel likely to make up the top four in this division. Bristol Rovers who we face on Sunday are a dark horse. They have recruited really well, you can see from the footage we have seen of them that they are really efficient in their play and they have players with experience at the level. They appear to be well-backed by the men’s club as well. It should be a good test for us again. Everyone is hurting after the recent results so it is a matter of personal pride.”

The opportunity to play at an EFL stadium once again is something that excites the manager: “The day you don’t get excited at playing at these sorts of grounds is the day you should quit football! I’m ambitious and see myself on the touchline at a WSL club or international level in the future. The more you spend time in these kind of environments, the more you can visualise those ambitions.”

United will then head to perhaps the less prestigious environment of Winklebury Sports Complex on Thursday, September 26 to take on Southampton Women’s FC: “It is going to a tricky game. They have had a tough start to the season.

“That urgency to secure points can kick in early, speaking from experience. They have a new manager who had come in and he has already eluded to shape change so that makes it difficult to prepare as we don’t know perhaps quite what we’ll get from them.

“The focus this week is going to be nailing our principals and controllables and get back to looking like a Maidenhead United team. We haven’t been ourselves for much of the last two games. So for us next Thursday will all be about fight, character and gritiness and hopefully some good football too.”