Robinson wanted 'to live in moment for as long as possible' after Horsham rocket

Matt Robinson. Photo: Ian Longthorne

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Maidenhead United were keen to ensure their derby day defeat to Slough Town was only a blip rather than something more permanent, and Matt Robinson’s magnificent late winner at Horsham on Saturday ensured Ryan Peters got the response he was looking for from his players.

United had a Boxing Day to forget at York Road when the Rebels claimed a 3-1 win, despite only having 10 men for more than 45 minutes, but the Magpies were determined to bounce back at the Fusion Aviation Community Stadium.

Having deservedly levelled the game early in the second half through Miles Welch-Hayes’ far post header, Maidenhead looked the more likely winners, but they were held up by some dogged Horsham defence.

That was until Robinson opted against recycling the ball wide in favour of taking a pop at goal, and his dipping volley will surely be in the mix for the club’s goal of the season – though there is already some healthy competition on that front.

Speaking about it this week, Robinson said he wished he could ‘live in the winning moment for as long as possible’, describing it as the ‘epitome of ecstasy and jubilation.”

“Finish wise and circumstantially as well, it’s the best goal I’ve scored,” he said. “I think if you could bottle that feeling and sell it to people in the crowd, they’d buy it.

“If I could have lived in that moment for as long as possible, I would. That’s why I ran for as long as I did. It’s why we play football, to feel moments like that and to share it with our teammates and the fans. It was the epitome of ecstasy and jubilation.”

Peters admitted in his post-match interview for the club that he wanted Robinson to move the ball wide for a cross into the box, but after 40 minutes of dominance against a dogged Horsham defence, Robinson opted to try something different.

“We tried to move the ball around the box against them and keep them pegged in,” said the midfielder. “That was in my head when I took the shot.

“I thought we’d been doing it for 40 minutes and we hadn’t scored. I felt we had to do something different, and the touch just came to me, and I thought, yeah, just hit it.

“I knew it was a sweet strike because I didn’t really feel it. When you hit a ball nicely like that, it doesn’t feel like you’ve hit it hard. It feels like you’ve barely touched it.

“You can feel where you’ve hit it but it’s not like you’ve slapped through the back of the ball. I was just hoping it came down because there was a point when it was about a foot about the height of the crossbar and I thought – and it’s only less than a second from when I hit it to it hitting the stanchion – I was just thinking please, please, please, please. Them ones can sail wide or hit the post. If you hit 20 of them one of them goes in.”

Everything about this is just SO good

Take a bow, @MattRobinson231

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The result keeps the Magpies in contention for a play-off finish this season, although mid-week results saw them fall back to being five points off the top seven. They don’t play again until Enfield Town visit York Road on Saturday week (January 17), and while the rest may do the team some good, Robinson doesn’t expect the break will work in their favour.

“I think this break (to Enfield Town) will work against us,” he said. “When we’ve been able to string together results, they’ve been quickfire.

“They have come close together. It may take away from us, but Peyo and AOB (Ryan Peters and Aaron O’Brien) are assessing that situation and they’re not going to let us rest lightly.

“We don’t have any extra days off and we’re all focused on a week on Saturday. The preparations have already begun for that one.”

Ensuring the defeat against Slough didn’t become a ‘patten’ was one of the key themes for Peters and the Magpies team as they approached Saturday’s game at Horsham. United have been something of a streaky team this season – both in a positive and negative way - but they managed to stem any negativity from their poor Boxing Day display quickly.

The club has now won five of its last seven matches in the league and have improved considerably after switching to a 3-5-2 shape in recent weeks.

“I think the transition with Peyo and AOB (Peters and O’Brien) taking over from the gaffer (Alan Devonshire) was smooth because the two of them had been in the building and were part of the fabric,” added Robinson.

“They’re so familiar with the everyday goings on of the club. There wasn’t that usual transition period with a new gaffer where you’re trying to figure each other out. Peyo and AOB are very close to the team and have good relationships to the players. So, we skipped that awkward phase and went straight into it.

“We won Dev’s final two games, and they’ve built on the new philosophy of the 3-5-2 and how we were going to look in it. We differed from it a little bit at Horsham. But it’s what we went back to in the second half and how we went on to win the game.

“When you talk about us having something more concrete, it’s already there. The foundations are there already. We don’t have to go through the building of them. It’s just there’s a new person managing the group.”