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A determined and gritty
performance from Maidenhead saw them come away from the first of two
November visits to Twerton Park with all three
points against a very useful Team Bath outfit to go second in the Blue
Square South.
On a thoroughly depressing
afternoon weather-wise both sides did their best on a slippery surface to
produce some bright and entertaining football, and there were some early
exchanges of good play.
Shane Gore was called into
action for the Magpies after seven minutes, producing an excellent save
from Marc Canham's shot.
Three minutes later,
Maidenhead should have taken the lead as the Students' new signing from
Reading, goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, slipped as he came out to gather the
ball, leaving Ashley Nicholls to run the ball to the bye-line and then
square it, only for Mustafa Tyriaki to miss his
kick in front of a relatively open goal.
Team Bath had opportunities
to test Gore at the other end, but their shots were either blocked or
off-target, and in the 22nd minute, Rocky Baptiste
had a great chance to put the visitors ahead as he beat the offside trap to
meet Dale Binns' cross, only for his volley to
fly well wide with only McCarthy to beat.
The Second Half produced few
chances of note, mainly due to some excellent defending at both ends, in
particular for Maidenhead, where Mark Nisbet was
his usual solid self, and he was ably backed by Substitute Jermaine Hinds
who had come on for the injured Dominic Sterling in the 51st minute. Hinds produced an almost faultless
display in the middle of the Maidenhead defence.
The turning point came in
the 82nd minute, Baptiste found space in the Bath defence and, as he turned the Bath defender, he was brought down.
Referee Ron Ganfield, who enjoyed an extremely good match, seemed
to hesitate for a couple of seconds before blowing for the penalty, this was fired impressively home by Substitute
Lee Newman who gave McCarthy no chance.
The Students tried to lift
themselves for a late rally in search of an equaliser but Maidenhead
comfortably dealt with any threat and clinched victory with a minute
remaining.
Jamal Fyfield
played a left wing free kick wide to Dale Binns,
and his cross was turned into his own net by Bath Captain Sami El-Abd, under pressure from Newman.
A thoroughly satisfying
performance from Maidenhead which sends them into next Saturday's top of
the table clash against leaders Chelmsford
full of confidence.
Students:
McCarthy, Perrott, Caton,
D. Smith, Lock, El-Abd, Cooper (71 Thomson), Canham, Llewellyn, Abbott, Benison.
Unused Subs. Hobbs, Arnold, Dillon, Hines.
Magpies:
Gore, Smith T, Fyfield, Surey,
Sterling
(51 Hinds), Nisbet, Smith A (75 Behzadi), Nicholls, Tyriaki
(63 Newman), Baptiste, Binns.
Unused Subs. Bernard, Carter.
Goals: Newman 82 (pen), Own Goal 89.
Crowd: 135
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