About Me

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Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom
I'm a director of Maidenhead United Football Club. For ten seasons one of my roles at the club was to produce the match programme. The aim of this blog was to write football related articles for publication in the match programme. In particular I like to write about the representation of football in popular culture, specifically music, film/TV and literature. I also write about matches I attend which generally feature Maidenhead United.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Two bald men fighting over a comb

A desperate game contested at York Road yesterday by two teams who needed to win and certainly couldn't lose. Thus there was no lack of competitive spirit and perhaps a little too much at times, like the pair of follically challenged combatants, as soon as either team got what they wanted. i.e. a decent attacking position, they had little idea about what to do with it. Neither keeper was required to make a significant save all afternoon. Maybe Maidenhead had the lion's share of possession, maybe Tonbridge looked more threatening in the final third, but the main talking point was the fracas that exploded in the dressing room area following the double dismissal of Ryan Watts and Danny Green with about twenty minutes remaining.
Already the tension had led to a confrontation between the dugout personnel over a foul just the other side of the line which saw Bobby Behzadi end up on the deck. Following the break down of an attack Green threw the ball at Watts who responded by throwing it back at Green as the winger turned his back, the ball hitting his head. The referee saw the last part of the exchange and immediately dismissed Watts. Cue outrage from his teammates which led to the referee to consult the linesman who had a perfect view of the incident and thus left no option but to send off Green too. In all honesty it all could have been settled by the two players shaking hands as the ball was thrown with little venom by either party, but unfortunately the pair continued their conversation when they reached the dressing room leading to the bizarre sight of everyone rushing off the pitch to get involved whilst the spectators could see nothing of it.
This proved to be the only real talking of a goalless deadlock which on the part of Maidenhead only Richard Pacquette had the chances to break, at either end of the game, but both shots sailed over the bar.
So now Maidenhead have a week off to recharge their batteries before the final assault to break back into the Conference South for next season with four games in the last eight days of the season.

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