Maidenhead v City

McCootie and Gallanagh on bench. Bowman and Kington start.

1-0 down after three minutes. My day gets better.

1-0 down after 3 minutes. Sounds like a Mellor howler?

Stearn starting as well from the commentary.

Sounds like Mellor is now keeping us in the game.

From what I can tell, the line-up is Mellor, , Bowman, Ball, Keary, Simpson, Allen, Kington, Artus, Walsh, Pratt, Stearn.

Stylish - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B6g02YGIIAEGCo5.jpg - like it.

Mellor, Bowman, Simmo, Ball, Gallingah, Allen Kington, Artus, Watkins, Stearn, Pratt second half.

Stearn free kick, 1-1!!!!

I would have jumped in the air if my ankle didn't feel broken. Sounds much better.

Bloody hell, Andy Kerslake doesn't like praising Stearn, does he?

He's not reporting. Didn't notice anything wrong with the commentary. First time I've listened in a long time (I'm usually at another game if I'm not at ours) and I've been impressed.

1-1 ft

No, correct, it's not Kerslake, it's someone else. Stearn made a wrong decision (as he does) and from then until the free kick, it kept on being mentioned how often he does this. Right before the free kick, he was saying that it was the sort of range where Stearn should score but doesn't enough and, after, was saying much the same. Bob Chester seemed to be subtly pulling back to a more balanced view.

That being said, they did mention that Pratt was a bit anonymous and that he needed to score and were very balanced about McCootie.

Draw was a fair result.

They dominated the first half down the slope (and into a much less heavy half of the pitch) and we could have been 4 or 5 down at the break. Only three or four great saves from Mellor and poor finishing kept us in the game. Not sure where Mellor being at fault for their goal came from as it looked like he was beaten by a very good shot.

Watkins and Gallinagh brought on for Walsh and Keary at HT which gave us much more width. Second half just as one-sided in our favour although not as many clear chances, helped by the fact Maidenhead could (and did) waste as much time as possible. The most likely route to a goal was Maidenhead's very shakey keeper and that's how it turned out. Stearn free-kick was well struck but he pushed it up and over the line.

yuffie wrote:Not sure where Mellor being at fault for their goal came from as it looked like he was beaten by a very good shot.

From the radio commentary again, they mentioned it after the goal but also mentioned after he had made the two great saves.

I guess they were nearer (and higher up) but I think they may be being a bit harsh.

I thought it was more the case of a great strike rather than Melllor's mistake. And without his heroics in the following half hour, the home team would have been out of sight by ht. These poor displays in the first half are becoming the norm - the management are clearly doing well at geeing our team up at ht, but what is happening before the match?

Great free kick from Stearn to equalise - made up for his abysmal effort to break the back of the net from a very tight angle when the keeper was grounded. And i thought Yuffie's judgement on the latter was rather harsh, as the bloke was clearly carrying an injury.

Definitely the coldest I've been at a game this winter...

Funny game today really, both teams probably feel they should have won it! Maidenhead should have been miles in front at half time, but we completely dominated the second half and the way we were going I wouldn't have been surprised to see us get a second.

On that basis a draw definitely a fair result, 7 points from 3 games over Christmas seems like a pretty decent return to me.

comrade powell wrote:I thought it was more the case of a great strike rather than Melllor's mistake. And without his heroics in the following half hour, the home team would have been out of sight by ht.

That was certainly something they were iterating.

It looks as though there are highlights on Maidenhead's forum but you have to register and I couldn't be bothered!

Ah, they're on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8cRhdTY48g

Wow it really was a game of two halves. Great strike from Steam who celebrated with the bench again and several great saves from Mellor. I don't know if the slow start had as much to do with form yesterday as with the slope. It seemed a bit uncanny that both sides looked so good playing down. Perhaps our second half improvement v Weston was also slope assisted?

I think the pitch played a part as well. It was much heavier at the top of the slope.

We finished stronger in all three of our Christmas games and in fact dominated the second half against Wealdstone. It would appear that the squad has been working on its fitness.

Hopefully this will stand us in good stead for the rest of the season and we can push on.