MAIDENHEAD UNITED 0

We lost 1-0 at Croydon in a game which was played on the worst pitch I have seen for a while.
No sour grapes really as the home side adapted themselves better than we did to "Brighton Beach", but there were some plus points to come from the performance.
We had Lee Newman in an early 4-3-1-2 formation behind Ryan Hazell and Carl Wilson-Denis, but it became obvious that this system wasn't working that well, so Lee was switched to a wide right midfield role. This afforded him not only the opportunity of running at an opponent but also the chance to go at full pelt for the first time since his operation, a role to which he is not that accustomed, but nevertheless he performed with typical enthusiasm.

We conceded the only goal early in the second half after Steve Bado, the Reserve Captain and Centre Half, conceded a corner under pressure from a Croydon forward.  From the corner kick the Croydon Centre Half was given a free header from which to score the only goal.  Lee went closest for us when he cut in from the right wing and shot, onlly to be denied by the Crossbar.
All in all, a good opportunity for Lee and Carl to get valuable time in, and also for the other lads who had not played a competitive 90 minutes for several weeks.  Some plus points came out of this, Steve Bado looks good at the back, Luke Dexter looks a pretty good partner for him, and I also liked the look of Kieron Hudson, the Youth team goalkeeper who had a very competent game.  Ricky Hazard and Fred Okyere worked hard in midfield, and Ryan Hazell was very good up front.  The other young players worked very hard, but I think several were short of match practice after several weeks of inactivity.