Upward says Maidenhead United had the right mindset for trip to King's Lynn Town

Ryan Upward. Photo: Darren Woolley

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Ryan Upward walked the ball into the net to round of the scoring in Saturday's convincing 4-1 win over King's Lynn Town, a victory which will go a long way towards ensuring their National League survival for another season.

United were already 3-1 to the good by the time Upward anticipated substitute Shaun McCoulsky's parried shot and got to the ball ahead of the retreating Linnets’ defender to toe poke it into the unguarded net.

@Ryannn999 finished McCoulsky’s rebounded shot to make it four on Saturday. #WeAreMaidenhead pic.twitter.com/ui8HDzV43u

— Maidenhead United (@MUFCYorkRoad) February 28, 2022

Prior to that Maidenhead had done brilliantly to respond after falling behind, with Dan Sparkes firing them level midway through the first half before Josh Kelly stole the show with another impressive brace. His first saw him touch the ball past his marker before shrugging him off and firing high into the net to give the visitors the lead.

And he was at it again two minutes later, gliding past a couple of challenges on the edge of the box before keeping his cool to roll the ball underneath Paul Jones.

The victory lifts the Magpies 12 points clear of the relegation places and up to the heady heights of 14th in the table ahead of tomorrow night's (Tuesday) trip to 10th placed Dagenham & Redbridge, a team they now only trail by nine points with a game in hand.

They've won five of their last 10 matches, losing just once in the process to leaders Stockport County, a run of form that now has them targeting a top half finish rather than glancing nervously over their shoulders.

Speaking to club media officer Grace Scott after Saturday's win, Upward said the Magpies arrived at The Walks with the right mindset.

“The pressure was on them to be honest,” he said.

“We'd done well recently, and we'd managed to get adrift of the relegation places so the pressure was on them.

“We started well, and we knew our jobs. We knew that if we thought we'd come here and just win the game we'd get rolled over. But it was a good all-round performance on a bad pitch and now we move on to Dagenham.”

Upward came close to scoring in last week's 2-0 win over Boreham Wood, with Nathan Blissett getting the vital touch on his late shot to turn it past Taye Ashby-Hammond, but no one can take his goal against King's Lynn away from him, even if it was a tap in.

“It was brilliant (to score), he said.

“The one against Boreham Wood, I wanted to get that on target, but it was probably just going wide, so Bliss took that one.

“This one was the easiest goal I’ll ever score; I was just following up a shot.”

On the unwavering and vocal support of the Magpies fans, Upward added: “It's just as loud at the away games and there's only about 50 of them, because they're so die-hard.

“They love football and follow us up and down the country

“They're also very loud and it gets us through the games in tight moments.

“Today that wasn't so much the case as we were a few goals up, but when it's 1-1 or you're 1-0 down you need the crowd to help you get a goal and they always help lift us.

“The amount of singing, even 15/20 minutes after the game was brilliant.”