O'Brien inspires clinical Maidenhead United to victory over Keynsham Town

Katie Akerman, Simone O’Brien and Izzy Stockton. Photo: MUFC

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Maidenhead United Women made it a very encouraging start to the new year with a clinical performance in a 3-1 victory at Keynsham Town to further solidify their position in the top half of the FA Women’s National League Division 1 South West.

It was an all-action start at The AJN Stadium. United started well, but it was the ever-dangerous Brooke Stirrup who had the first sight of goal for the home side. Maidenhead however led inside three minutes, as captain Simone O’Brien won back possession deep in the Keynsham half and from the tightest of angle she drove home a beautiful strike which looped over Chloe Jones in the Keynsham goal and dipped just under the crossbar.

Maidenhead thereafter dominated first half proceedings with top-scorer Izzy Stockton and Megan Harper sending efforts wide of goal. At the other end Chloe Webb had to clear from her own goal line before a cross field ball bounced unkindly on the 4G surface over the head of Chloe Webb with Stirrup crashing a volleyed effort over the bar.

United were forcing plenty of corners and from one such delivery Stockton turned and her shot hit a Keynsham player and drifted behind. From the resultant corner Stockton stabbed a shot wide. The hosts came close when Stirrup pulled the ball back from the far post but Georgia Galley fired her effort over the top.

There was a key sixty seconds before the break when a Keynsham attacker went around United’s returning goalkeeper Danni Hull but could only find the base of the post from a tight angle. The rebound fell kindly for another Keynsham player whose shot was cleared from the line by an alert Myah Baksh who unfortunately had to go off injured minutes later. Following that dramatic moment, United immediately counter-attacked and a cross from Katie Akerman was tapped home at the far post by O’Brien for her second of the game and of the season.

Maidenhead had their third three-goal haul of a prolific season barely five minutes into the second period. A chipped ball over the top of the Keynsham defence by substitute Emily McMaster was hit on the half-volley by inform Izzy Stockton and United’s top scorer beat Jones who was given no time to react. Lyndsey Preston came close for United as the half wore on but the next and final goal of the game was scored by the alert Angharad Beman, who tapped home from close range after Hull had wisely opted to parry a free-kick launched goal bound but saw the loose ball come back off the underside of the crossbar. Maidenhead thereafter saw out the remainder of the game with comfort.

Manager Dave Kitson was delighted with his players. “Our attitude was spot on” he remarked. “We speak about arriving for games relaxed but knowing we are there to win a game of football, so trying to find a balance between those two things is something which is tricky for any team and we hit the nail on the head on Sunday. It is a dangerous time to pay a game, because of the limited schedule at this time of year you are training much more than you are playing. Messages can then get rather mixed up and you can never be sure what you are going to get, especially after a effectively a month off. On the day the warm-ups were spot on, the girls had arrived in a good frame of mind and with the injuries we had things could have gone wrong but ultimately didn’t.

The manager reserved some praise for his captain: “I was pleased with Sim (O’Brien). She has worked so hard this season to get in the team. She is intellectually curious about the game and her first goal was a really technically good goal. We have looked at what the opposite winger is doing to make sure we are doing things that make it more statistically likely that we will get chances, so for the second goal she was literally in the square inch of where we asked her to be in those situations. There is a lot that goes into those kind of simple-looking goals, and the cross from Katie is inch perfect.”

Maidenhead are now without a game until they host Bridgwater United at York Road on Sunday, January 25.