Magpies showed resilience but lacked a cutting edge in stalemate with Chesham

Maidenhead United’s on loan defender David Mantle in action on Saturday. Photo: MUFC

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Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Chesham United at The Meadow felt like two points dropped to a disappointed Ryan Peters in the immediate aftermath.

However, he also acknowledged his side’s resilience and desire to get something from a game where they were a long way short of their best.

United were pretty much non-existent as an attacking force throughout the first 45 minutes, and while Chesham were fortunate to go into the break in front - after Mitchell Weiss deflected home Samson Esan’s wayward shot in the 43rd minute - the Magpies could have few complaints after a largely underwhelming period.

They improved after the interval - spurred on again by a series of early changes, with Josh Umerah coming into the attack in place of Sam Barratt and Jordon Ragguette replacing Owen Cochrane on the left side of the visitors’ defence.

They tried hard to step up the tempo but generally laboured until the 74th minute when Liam Dulson finished off the move of the match - from either team.

Matt Robinson, Asher Yearwood, Umerah and Josh Popoola were all involved in teeing up Dulson for a smashing finish.

“It feels at the moment like two points dropped,” said Peters. “But let’s not forget that for a large spell in that game we were also 1-0 down. So, to get back into it shows resilience.

“But that second half display, I feel like we should have done more to put their goalkeeper under more pressure. We played side to side maybe a little bit too often, rather than being braver. And because of that their goalkeeper was relatively comfortable.

“When we are good, as we were in the second half against Enfield, we will try to shoot as often as we can do when we get those chances, but we didn’t do that today unfortunately so it’s frustrating.

“I think the boy (Weiss) is offside. Nevertheless, I feel we had to defend that moment better and I don’t think we did. I feel like it was their real chance on our goal and it ended up being a goal, so it’s clinical from them. But in terms of our play and our first half attacks, they were non-existent. Off the back of the Enfield game, I was expecting us to be free flowing, but we weren’t.”

Following Dulson’s leveller, Peters hoped the Magpies would kick on and win the game - overwhelming their opponents in the process like they’d done in their previous two wins over Enfield Town and Horsham.

But the visitors never really clicked as an attacking force. Not even when the hosts were reduced to 10 men for the final few minutes when Callum Adebiyi sent off following a clash with Dulson close to the corner flag.

“It was a really heavy pitch,” explained Peters. “Asher (Yearwood) is one of the fittest players in the league and he’s coming down with cramps, so you know it’s a heavy pitch when that happens.

“That being said, both teams played on that pitch and in the first half one team did much better on it.

“Our goal was very good. It’s not necessarily the goal, but the will to want to attack like that as much as possible. We didn’t see that in the first half very much at all but in the second half we tried to create more chances on goal. It didn’t really happen for us today, but the goal is exactly what we’re looking for.

“One of our biggest frustrations is that when they went down to 10 men there should have been limited opportunities for them to attack us from that point. Maybe a little bit naively from all the players, we wanted to get that second goal so badly that we became a little bit too open and allowed them some counter attacks.

“From our standpoint, fine we want to score again, but let’s not lose the game.

“We had some attacks though and needed to deliver better quality, but we didn’t do that today.”

Having seen their home game with AFC Totton called off on Tuesday because of a waterlogged pitch, the Magpies will now return to action at Ebbsfleet United on Saturday - a battle between two of last season’s demoted teams with both now pushing for a play-off finish.