Magpies pick up points rather than plaudits after snatching late win over Tonbridge

Ryan Peters takes the acclaim of the travelling support at Tonbridge. Photo: MUFC

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Maidenhead United picked up points rather than plaudits after a hard-earned 1-0 win over Tonbridge Angels on Tuesday evening, with interim boss Ryan Peters admitting his side ‘weren’t very good’.

After three successive league matches without a win, where United played well for spells without perhaps getting the results those performances merited, Peters was thankful to get the rub of the green at the Longmead Stadium.

United were indebted to their keeper Jordi Van Stappershoef with two or three very good saves as Tonbridge penned them in for much of the second half. He pulled off one terrific save from point blank range in stoppage-time, paving the way for the Magpies to go on and claim all three points.

Jordi! Jordi! Jordi! ️

An incredible save from our big Dutchman in the dying embers last night, setting us up for the unbelievable ending pic.twitter.com/di9n0J6G1J

— Maidenhead United (@MUFCYorkRoad) February 11, 2026

This they did in the 94th minute when Josh Popoola sent in a free kick from the left that Matt Robinson headed home.

This was a game that could easily have gone either way, but fortunately for Maidenhead, it went their way, and with other results also going for them, this was a potentially pivotal result for the promotion chasers.

It lifts them to eighth in the table, now just four points behind seventh placed Hemel Hempstead Town with a game in hand over three of the four sides directly above them.

The result was in stark contrast to Saturday’s 2-2 home draw with Farnborough, where the Magpies played their visitors off the park for 60 minutes - and scored twice through Liam Dulson and Josh Umerah - only to be pegged back in the second half.

Speaking afterwards, Peters told Shay Bottomley the win over Tonbridge makes Saturday’s point feel a whole lot better. However, he also accepted his side hadn’t played well enough and that Tonbridge were unfortunate to lose.

“I’m delighted,” he said.

“It feels good. I spoke in the last two games about potentially playing poorly and coming out with some results rather than playing well and having very little to show for it.

“We weren’t very good at all today. I wouldn’t say we deserved very much out of it, but when those opportunities presented themselves, we showed some resilience and picked up the win.

“There’s nothing like a last-minute winner. We were buzzing coming off the pitch and that’s not something we’ve been in the last two or three games.

Late, and most certainly great, from @MattRobinson231! pic.twitter.com/8POzaO6lGb

— Maidenhead United (@MUFCYorkRoad) February 11, 2026

“Hopefully now that is the stepping stone to go on. Results went well for us, and we now push on to a really tough test on Saturday. We have to warm down well.

“I’ve spoken to the boys about maybe not giving away so many chances. Because I thought these were good today. I don’t think they deserved to come off with what they came off with. But now, for us, it’s about being as good as we can be and making sure, we capitalise on this result.”

He added: “For 30 minutes tonight I thought we were ok. Second half, we didn’t come out in the way I was hoping to. We got penned in, but a lot of those mistakes were of our own making. It would be great to get rid of those mistakes as quickly as possible because once we are a gelled unit we’re very good value.”

Maidenhead will now look to capitalise on this somewhat fortunate victory when they travel to leaders Torquay United on Saturday. Torquay were one of several top sides to drop points on Tuesday night - hence it being such a good night for the Magpies. But they’ll be looking to bounce back at Plainmoor on Saturday.

The Gulls soared to a 2-1 win over the Magpies at York Road back in November so United will travel west keen to make amends.

After Saturday, the Magpies schedule looks stacked through to the end of March, however, they’ll need to gain some momentum during this tough run of fixtures if they’re to achieve their play-off aims.

“I figured there was going to be a blip in performances and results, but I didn’t think it was going to come before we had this run of fixtures,” said Peters.

“The last two results haven’t been what we wanted but the point on Saturday now looks a lot better off the back of this.

“We have a lot of games, but we’ve now bolstered the squad so there will be rotation, and we’ve got to do as well as we can now.”