"Close to a knockout": Survival on the line as Maidenhead and Wimbledon clash

Greg Smith scoring against Jersey. Photo: Paul Morgan

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Maidenhead’s away game at Wimbledon this Saturday isn’t quite the ‘knock out’ match to decide which team will be relegated from the Regional 1 South Central this season, but it’s pretty close to that according to head coach David Mobbs-Smith.

Whoever wins this game between two of the locked in bottom four teams will have a huge advantage during the run in as they look to finish outside of the automatic relegation places.

It’s currently neck-and-neck between Maidenhead in ninth, Wimbledon in 10th and Camberley in 11th, with all three sides on 23 points ahead of bottom of the table Hammersmith & Fulham on 15 points. And a win for either Maids or Wimbledon on Saturday will go a long way towards determining which level they’ll be playing at next season.

A loss for Maids could prove to be a blow from which they can’t recover, and Mobbs-Smith and his players are aware of that.

In spite of that, Maids head into the game in buoyant mood, having competed well with league leaders Jersey in a 12-40 defeat at Braywick Park a couple of weeks ago, Maids were very much in the contest until late in the game, when their more experienced visitors took the game away from them.

“From a squad preparation point of view, it’s a hugely exciting week because there’s so much riding on this game, and I’m sure that’s the same for them,” said Mobbs-Smith.

“It’s not a knockout game as such but it’s probably as close as you can come to one when there are only seven matches left to the end of the season.

“It’s not quite there, but the side that wins will have a huge boost going forward.

“In the run in you’ll have that advantage over the other team.

“Wimbledon and Camberley must play each other, and they play Hammersmith so you could argue that between the two of them, one of them has two victories there.

“One has to win the game between themselves, and one will probably beat Hammersmith.

“That would be two victories, so we need this victory definitely and that will take us into the final run.”

Maids can take heart from having competed so well against the runaway league leaders at Braywick Park earlier this month.

Midway through the second half, Mobbs-Smith felt his side was still in contention for ‘a miracle win’ or at least some bonus points.

Jersey have been indestructible this season, winning all 15 of their matches so far, scoring 684 points and conceding just 235 points. Those stats dwarf every other team in the competition.

He added: “The team is buoyant.

“We played well against Jersey.

“We were very much in the game until half-time and played some great rugby.

“They just got two early tries in the second half, and I felt the final score – although they were the better side – just lent towards them. With 10 minutes to go it was 12-26 and we were still in the game, not only trying to get a bonus point but trying to win the game. But they just dominated us up front and took away our ability to strike at them.

“They deserved the win, no question about it and they were the better side, but we were close to getting something out of the game, but just not close enough.

“Beating them would have been a miracle, like it was last year, but we were leading again at the start. We scored first once again. It was a wonderful game in the first half, and we were playing some wonderful stuff. It was so tight and exciting.

“They nearly scored at half-time to take it away from us and we then went down the other end of the pitch to make it 12-14. The game was on at half-time; it was a great game. But they came out and went more direct, they looked for scrummage penalties and that just gave them the territory to dominate the game.

“When you perform well against the top side, who haven’t lost all season, you can’t be disappointed on your performance. You can be disappointed about the result but not the performance.”