Maidenhead United deliver the performance, but not the result, against York City

York City keeper Rory Watson escaped a red card after falling on the ball from a back pass and denying Maidenhead a clear goal scoring opportunity. Photo: Darren Woolley

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Maidenhead United can be satisfied with their performance against York City on Tuesday evening, but they'll be desperately disappointed not to have backed it up with a positive result, as late defensive lapses cost them dearly at York Road.

The Magpies were on the brink of a very creditable point at home to the title chasing Minstermen and had to negotiate just four minutes of injury time to come away with a 1-1 draw.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t deliver the result their performance merited as York scored twice through Ollie Pearce and Josh Stones in the 94th and 95th minutes to seal a 3-1 win.

The result was incredibly harsh on the Magpies, who'd lifted their performance levels from Saturday's stilted, flat display and defeat to Yeovil Town.

From the start they hassled and harried the Minstermen, never giving their high-flying rivals a moments peace, with the likes of Joshua Johnson and Tristan Abrahams having particularly impressive games.

Shawn McCoulsky should have smashed them in front in the early stages when a free kick fell nicely for him in the six-yard box in the 10th minute, but somehow, he miscued, and the visitors survived to then take the lead slightly out of the blue from Pearce's near post header at a corner.

United rallied to their credit in the second half. They'll argue the visitors should have been reduced to 10 men when their keeper Rory Watson handled the ball from a back pass under pressure from Abrahams. It seemed like the keeper had denied the Magpies a clear goalscoring opportunity, but the referee was clearly in a lenient mood, and the hosts weren't able to capitalise from the indirect free-kick in York's six-yard box.

The equaliser their performance deserved eventually arrived in the 63rd minute when Abrahams volleyed home unmarked from Owen Cochrane's header back across goal, and it's just a shame they weren't able to hold onto it, or even add to it. McCoulsky hooked wide when he might have done better in the 84th minute, but York were a constant threat and they eventually made the most of one of their chances when Pearce latched onto a flick on and drilled the ball past Craig Ross in the 94th minute. Stones then took advantage of some hesitant United defending to make it 3-1 a minute later. It felt harsh on the Magpies, but the Minstermen had found a way to win, and that's what teams who challenge for titles generally do.

Reflecting on the game, Abrahams said: “I thought it was a much better performance from Saturday. It was head and shoulders above Saturday. The boys put everything out there, we worked our socks off and probably had opportunities to go on and win it.

“We could have scored a few more goals so it’s frustrating to come away losing that game. Minimum we should have got a draw for all the effort that we put in.

“To be fair, you’ve got to be ready in the box. Luckily the ball has landed to me, and I’ve got a clean strike on it and it’s gone in.

“You take the positives from every performance if you can. It was a tough game and we’re not in the best position, so we’ve got to take the positives from this and try and build on it in the next game.”

Abrahams added: “I thought we did that today, we were much better than Saturday. It is a solid performance and if we perform like that going forward, we’ll be alright, we’ll be able to pick up more points.

“That’s always the way when you’re down at the bottom. You’ve got to beat the teams that are around you and I think we have a lot of them to play. If we can pick up the points in those games, we should be ok. Ultimately, they’re six-point games. If we can do ok in those games and win more than we lose we should be alright.”

Maidenhead's next game is away to third placed Forest Green Rovers on Saturday, another of the teams in with a shout of the National League title. They'll go there in hope rather than expectation though after this defeat left them in the relegation zone and two points from safety.

This time last week they were four points above the drop zone and looking up the table rather than down. As they say, a week is a long time in football.