Maidenhead United v Bath City

On a saturated York Road pitch, Maidenhead lost 2-0 to league leaders Bath City last night. The drama began before the kick off when incessant rain forced referee Steve Phipps to make regular pitch inspections as it got more inundated. He declared the game on half an hour before the scheduled start, and an entertaining first half ensued with both teams trying to play football in spite of the conditions.
Play ebbed and flowed from end to end, both teams having good chances to take the lead. For Maidenhead a vicious shot from Stephen Hughes in the 20th minute drew a fine save from Paul Evans in the Bath goal, Evans at full stretch to push the ball round the post. Ten minutes later Dean Fenton beat Evans with a long shot from distance only for the ball to cannon away to safety off the top right corner of the woodwork.
Bath really should have taken the lead in the 27th minute when Darren Edwards hit the post from 12 yards with Chico Ramos beaten. The Romans were then left feeling aggrieved when a good penalty shout was waved away by the ref, and a goal was disallowed by the linesman. Their anger was assuaged some what when they scored twice in the dying moments of the half. With the break in sight the Maidenhead defence’s concentration lapsed to allow Mark McKeever through, his shot was parried by Ramos and Scott Partridge as on hand to stroke the loose ball into the empty net. The lead was doubled within a minute when Bath repelled the United attack from the kick off and set Partridge free down the left, this time it was his shot that was saved by Ramos and Lewis Hogg who scored with the goal at his mercy.
With no end to the rain the second half became something of a farce with both teams frequent flowing attacks brought to an abrupt halt when players overran the ball as it got stuck in the mud. Bath came closest to scoring in the 50th minute when Scott Rogers hit the underside of the crossbar with an acrobatic shot from close range.