Devonshire pleased with pre-season but wants Magpies to avoid complacency

Magpies new boy Koby Arthur battles to keep hold of the ball. Photo: Darren Woolley

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Maidenhead United have made an encouraging start to pre-season, winning four of their five matches to date, however, Alan Devonshire is wily enough to know that friendly results often count for very little when the competitive action gets underway.

The Magpies are warming up nicely for the new National League campaign – which kicks off at Notts County on Saturday, August 6 – however, Devonshire is urging his players not to let their standards slip or become complacent as they seek to hit the ground running next month.

United have lost just one of their five pre-season matches so far, a 4-0 defeat to a Reading FC side packed with Premier League and Championship level experience last week. But they bounced back in fine style with a 1-0 win over Brentford's B side at York Road on Saturday, a team they’ve generally struggled against in the past. New signing Temi Eweka grabbed the game's only goal with the assist coming from Dan Sparkes.

Then, on Wednesday, the Magpies emerged victorious in a seven-goal thriller, beating Samson Esan’s former club Potters Bar Town, 4-3.

Prior to these matches, the Magpies kicked off their pre-season preparations with a couple of thumping wins, and a glut of goals, as the beat Holyport 7-0 and Binfield 4-1 on July 9.

They will now turn their attention to National League South side Hungerford Town on Saturday, 3pm kick-off.

Whilst satisfied with the win against the Bees, and the resilience shown by the players to bounce back from defeat to the Royals, Devonshire also admitted he remains apprehensive about the new season and whether they’ve done enough in the transfer market to ensure another positive season,

Last year the Magpies finished in 17th place with 13 wins, 12 draws, and 19 losses.

“At the end of the day, we played well against Brentford, and we got a clean sheet, but the result doesn’t mean anything right now,” he said to the Advertiser ahead of the Magpies’ match against Potters Bar Town.

“I’m looking at the players improving their individual fitness levels and their sharpness.

“I want to see who’s ready and who’s not for the new season.

“We’ve got a few little knocks and injuries at the moment but nothing too serious which is good.

“There will be another team playing tonight (Wednesday) and then we have Hungerford this weekend which we are looking forward to.

“Next Saturday (July 30) we have Farnborough which will probably be our last friendly before the start of the season.

“So, there is still a lot of work to be done. All in all, it was a good result against a good team on Saturday.

“It was good for the supporters to see a decent win against Brentford when we ain’t really had the best results against them before.

“There’s nothing better than being in front of the fans. I have always said what a great bunch they are.”

Devonshire added: “Yeah, listen, we’re apprehensive [about the new season] because we want to know we’ve got it right with recruitment and things like that. But we always look forward to the new season mostly.

“We don’t know [if there will be any more signings]. It all depends really on what happens with certain players in the squad and their current injuries etc.

“There are a lot of ifs and buts but we’re not really planning anything at the moment.”

On his aims for the new season, Devonshire said: “We’ve been in the National League for five or six years now.

“We’ve done great to consolidate ourselves in the division and if we can do that again this year, then that would be great. Within two years we will be in the new ground so hopefully we can push on after that.”