Rested and Ready: Devonshire eyes six on the spin for in-form Maidenhead United

Matt Robinson. Photo: Darren Woolley

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Alan Devonshire hopes Maidenhead United extend their winning run in the National League South to six matches on Saturday when Worthing visit York Road, but he knows they’re going to have their work cut out against one of last season’s title challengers.

United have been in fine form of late in the league, rising to fourth in the standings off the back of five straight league victories.

The one blip in the midst of all that winning has been their surprise FA Cup loss to Faversham Town at York Road, a result which left the Magpies kicking their heels last weekend when most of their league rivals were still involved.

Devonshire accepts there are pluses and minuses to sitting out a weekend, however, it has allowed one or two players to shake off their knocks and put themselves in the frame for Saturday’s clash at York Road.

Worthing finished fourth in the table last season, missing out on the title on the final day to Truro City. They then fell short in the play-off battle to remain in the second tier this season.

While their form so far this season has been inconsistent (3W,3D,3L), they retain much of the quality that saw them contend for the title last season, while they hammered Dagenham & Redbridge 5-2 away from home earlier this month so the Magpies would be foolish to underestimate them.

Devonshire said: “They finished second in the league last season and only lost in the play-offs, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game.

“But we’re looking forward to it and even more so because we’ve missed a week. We should be raring to go.

“There are going to be twists and turns, there are 46 games to play, and we’ve only played nine at the minute, so there’s a long way to go. But we’re okay, we’re in a position I’m quite happy with and now we’ll look to push on and try and get as many points on the board as possible.”

On resting up last weekend, Devonshire added: “It’s given a couple of the boys a chance to get over their knocks.

“We’ve had a good week so far and a good training session today, so we’ll see how we go.

“We’ve had a few players out, but that’s normal at this time of the year. I just hope the break hasn’t disrupted our momentum.”

After failing to win any of their first four matches, the Magpies have managed to get into their groove of late, winning matches in a variety of ways. Against Bath City away, they were at their fluent best to dispatch the Romans 4-0 on their own patch.

However, they’ve also shown they can grind with the best sides in the league, as demonstrated by their 2-1 victory over Chelmsford City at York Road, and most recent 1-0 away win at Maidstone United.

Matt Robinson scored the only goal of the game shortly before the break, smashing the ball home from inside the area, but they had to withstand some intense second half pressure from their hosts to leave the Gallagher Stadium with all three points.

“Listen, you’re playing on an artificial surface it’s always an advantage to the home team,” said Devonshire.

“Whenever you win away from home on those pitches it’s a good result.

“There are nine in the league with 3G. It’s something we’ll have to get used to, but it’s not something I agree with.”

Robinson’s goal was his first for the Magpies after signing in the summer, and the first from a central midfield player this season. Devonshire would ideally like to see his defenders and midfielders sharing the goalscoring burden with the side’s attackers and he was pleased to see Robinson sweep the ball home against the Stones.

“We’ve had defenders and forwards and wingers and now midfielders scoring,” said Devonshire.

“If you’re going to do well, you’re going to need to do that and get goals from all areas.

“It’s going to be tough (to stay in the title/promotion race) but we’ve done it before, so we know what it takes.

“It’s going to be difficult. I think there are 10 full time teams in the league now. But we’ve settled in the squad, and we have a squad that I’m happy with.”