United spiked by battling Urchins (29.01.05)

THE new slimline Hornchurch twice came from behind to deny Maidenhead United a rare home victory at York Road on Saturday.
Despite their recent upheavals, the Urchins still possessed class aplenty, intermingled with some stars of the future, as youth players filled recently vacated berths.
But it was the Magpies who came close to taking an early lead, when a forward ball took a fierce deflection off a defender, forcing Urchins goalkeeper Micky Desborough to scramble it away.
The visitors then settled and began testing United goalkeeper Ade Bankole with a series of near misses.
The outstanding Terry Bowes forced a fingertip save on six minutes, with a shot on the turn, before Danny Shipp sent Bankole to full stretch with a well struck free-kick from the edge of United’s box.
On 23 minutes Bowes stormed down the left side and let fly with a similar effort, which was met by a replica response from Bankole.
The ball ran loose to Andy Douglas, who netted from an acute angle, but the flag was up and the goal was ruled out.
United got their noses in front on 36 minutes, when Peter Adeniyi cut in from the left before rolling the ball to Jamie Cook on the edge of the penalty box.
Cook took one touch before steering the ball across the goal and inside the far post, despite Desborough getting a glove on it.
The second half saw Hornchurch continuing to press for a goal, but the Magpies defence held firm, meaning the bulk of the battle was restricted to the congested midfield.
Bankole had to make one routine save to intercept another hopeful effort from Shipp, but just as the Urchins looked to have run out of ideas they were thrown a penalty lifeline, when Bowes went to earth under a seemingly innocuous challenge from Lee Kersey.
Shipp shaped up and fired the spot-kick into the bottom corner.
Bryan Smith almost restored United's lead on 77 minutes, but his shot from the left was tipped over the bar by Desborough.
However, six minutes later the Magpies did get back in the driving seat.
Lawrence Yaku set up the chance with a probing run into the box and a neat square ball to Dean Clark.
Clark lashed the ball goalwards, forcing a superb reaction save from Desborough.
Fortunately, the ball ricocheted into the path of Craig O’Connor, whose low cross was stabbed home by Clark from six yards out.
Hornchurch attacked from the restart and equalised within two minutes, when Martin Vrhoski escaped down the right flank and delivered a pin-point cross for Douglas to squeeze past Bankole.
The final whistle sounded minutes later, prompting celebrations from both sets of fans, with a 2-2 draw the fair result.

CRUNCH: Midfield dynamo Kelvin McIntosh gets stuck into Andy Douglas on Saturday. Ref:87786/13