'We've got to get to 50 points as quickly as we can', says Maidenhead United boss Devonshire

Maidenhead United still have plenty of work to do if they’re to survive this season, according to Alan Devonshire.

The Magpies manager was struggling to take the positives from the side’s competitive display in a 3-2 defeat at Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

The Magpies had their rivals rattled, after second half goals from Sam Barratt and Remy Clerima brought them back into contention. But Rovers held on for a seventh straight league win at Prenton Park.

United are still chasing the 50 points Devonshire thinks they’ll need for survival, and are without a win in the league since Boxing Day, when Solihull Moors were beaten 1-0 in an unconvincing display.

Devonshire is hopeful they’ll take their chances against Chester at York Road on Saturday, and is confident the players will get their just rewards if they ‘keep doing what they’re doing’.

Performances of late haven’t been that bad, and the Magpies will feel they probably should have taken all three points from their goalless draw at home to Halifax three weeks ago.

They also didn’t get the rub of the green at times at Prenton Park, but Devonshire said it was a stretch to suggest they were unfortunate not to get a result.

“I wouldn’t say that we were unlucky against Tranmere,” Devonshire said. “We could have possibly made a bit more of our chances, but at the end of the day we’ve lost the match. We can say that the performance wasn’t that bad but we didn’t get the result.”

“I felt that their goals were poor from our point of view.

“It was individual errors that led to them, players not doing their jobs, which is disappointing.

“At the end of the day I look for positives, and we’ve lost to a good side, but we've still got to get to 50 points as quickly as we possibly can.”

The Magpies had Rovers ‘on the rack’ in the final minutes, after goals from Sam Barratt and Remy Clerima made it 3-2 in the closing stages. But the visitors were unable to make their late pressure count on the scoreboard.

He said “We pulled a goal back through Remy with six minutes to go, and we huffed and puffed in those final minutes, but I was disappointed that we weren’t able to create a little bit more after that. We had them on the rack but made bad choices at key moments.”