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Two goals from Rocky Baptiste helped United to deliver a perfect Christmas
present to the Bell Street
faithful in the form of a four goal win over in form Bromley.
The three points were made
all the sweeter by the fact that it was United’s first victory since November
1st, and lifted them back into a play off place ahead of the big
holiday double header against promotion rivals Hayes & Yeading United.
The win was no walk in the
park however, the drama starting before kick off when left back Jamal Fyfield pulled up in the warm up handing a debut to
teenager Tom Baddeley. With Lee Newman having to play on the
right wing to cover for a flu stricken Ashley Smith, the line up may have
looked makeshift to the seasoned observer, but United took control from the
kick off and hardly looked back.
Bromley’s best
results this season have been away from home, but there strategy of sitting
deep and breaking quickly down the wings suited Maidenhead down to the
ground. United needed no invitation
to take the game to the visitors, the lionhearted captain Ashley Nicholls
driving team forward from midfield, allowing the likes of Newman, Manny
Williams and Dale Binns the scope to run at the
Bromley defence.
It was one of these
attacking moves from Williams that brought about the first goal. The on loan striker was brought down by
Rob Gilman for a penalty. Newman’s
spot kick was well saved by Gareth Williams diving to his left, but he
could not hold onto the ball and Nicholls was on hand to fire the ball into
the net on the quarter hour mark.
Soon after Maidenhead
shrugged off the loss of central defender Pat Sappleton through injury
after the goal and dominated the rest of the half. Most of Bromley’s attacks came via
the powerful right winger Ashley-Paul Robinson, Baddeley
dealt well with most of these, but the one chance Robinson got to shoot
forced Shane Gore into a spectacular one handed save to push the winger’s
long distance effort wide.
Maidenhead consolidated
their lead eleven minutes into the second half when a Newman cross from the
left was met by a shot from Nicholls at the far post that found Baptiste handily placed in front of goal to bundle the
ball over the line.
A two goal deficit produced
the best spell of the game for Bromley as for the next half an hour they
threw everything at United in an ultimately vain attempt to get back into
the game. They exposed the Magpie
defence on more than one occasion but were unable to finish, Gore dealing well
with the only effort of note, a Nic McDonnell header with nine minutes.
With their lead intact
following this onslaught it was left to the Magpies to apply the coup de
grace in the dying minutes. Firstly
Richard Pacquette celebrated his return to action
after a month’s lay off by scoring with a tap in after some
delightful play on the right hand byline from Nicholls
had led to Baptiste hitting the post. Then Baptiste made
it four with a bullet header from a Newman cross.
Magpies: Gore, Behzadi (70
Smith T), Baddeley, Surey,
Sterling, Sappleton (23 Nisbet),
Newman, Nicholls, Williams (76 Pacquette), Baptiste, Binns.
Unused subs: Hinds,
Bernard.
Goals: Nicholls 15, Baptiste 56 & 88,
Pacquette 85
Caution: Newman 22
Crowd: 364.
Ravens: Williams, Norval,
Dolby (77 Watts). Crook, Sobers, Gilman, Robison (90 John), I’Anson, McBean,
McDonnell, Hall.
Unused subs: Obaze, Davis, Stone.
Cautions: Gilman 14,
McDonnell 29.
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