| Hard work produces no reward for Magpies (17.04.07) |
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MAIDENHEAD UNITED 0 |
BATH CITY 1 (1) |
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A hardworking Maidenhead performance was not
enough to pierce a formidable Bath City defence at York Road on
Saturday, to keep the Magpies winless, and send the Romans to the
top of the Blue Square South. With injuries to Mannny Williams and Bobby Behzadi, and on the flip side the return from injury of Dwane Lee, Lee Newman and Yashwa Romeo, United manager Johnson Hippolyte had plenty to ponder when selecting his team. He plumped to return to the 3-5-2 system that proved so successful at the business end of last season, and also favoured summer signing Louis Wells in goal over Chico Ramos. Southern League Champions Bath City, with a 100% winning record in past meetings with Maidenhead, and an impressive start to the season, took control of the early stages of the game, and missed a great chance to take the lead in the third minute when David Gilroy directed a free header straight at Wells. As the half continued United got into the game, with attacks down the left wing proving particularly fruitful due to the strong running of Ashley Smith. One such move resulted in a Wes Daly shot being deflected over but the chance of the half came from a more direct route when a long ball was flicked on by Carl Wilson-Denis into the path of Lee Newman who split the City defence, only to put his shot wide. Bath then took the lead eight minutes before the interval, a Lewis Hogg cross from the right wing fizzing along the byline to Gilroy at the near post. He neatly helped the ball on its way across the face of the goal where Darren Edwards was on hand to tap in to an empty net. Despite this setback Maidenhead emerged into the second half with renewed purpose and were desperately unlucky not to equalise within five minutes of the restart as firstly an acrobatic effort from Newman hit the post and then a Daly shot was palmed wide by City goalkeeper Paul Evans at full stretch. United continued to push hard to level the scores with Bath City also looking dangerous on the counter attack, Gilroy again guilty of profligacy in front of goal when he shanked the ball with only Wells to beat on the hour mark. The introduction of Romeo and Gavin James instilled new life in the Magpies attack in the final stages of the game, and with the end in sight both came close to scoring, a James hedaer going over the bar with two minutes left, and then with seconds of normal time left a seemingly goal bound header from Romeo was unwittingly deflected wide by James. |
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Magpies: Wells, Telemaque, Smith, Lee,
Sterling, Cooper, Clarke, Brown Da (83 James), Wilson-Denis (83
Fisher), Newman (73 Romeo), Daly. |