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.

Monday 29 September 2014

Great Expectations Miss Faversham

Something of a media frenzy surrounded Maidenhead United following the announcement late on Thursday night that DJ Campbell has signed for the Magpies. Therefore it was a pleasant contrast that the FA Cup tie against Faversham at York Road on Saturday, played in beautiful sunshine in front of a modest crowd, resulted dare I say it in an efficiently dull 4-0 win for the Magpies.
Campbell went straight into the team in his usual striking role, but in a change to formation Stefan Brown played alongside him as Drax reverted back to 4-4-2. More changes to the line up came in the form of Dave Tarpey who returned from suspension, with Danny Green, Eddie Hutchinson, Simon Downer and Mark Nisbet all back in the team after injury. Finally Harry Pritchard made his first start of the season, ably filling in at left back.
Maidenhead started the game cautiously, fully aware that their opponents came to York Road full of confidence. For much of the first hour, Faversham gave the appearance of possessing an attacking threat but failed to trouble Elvijs Putnins, Josh Stanford blazing their best chance wide when well placed.
At the other end Faversham naturally seemed preoccupied by Campbell, with ex Magpie Jon Scarborough given the task of man marking him but this in turn created more space and time for the rest of the forwards, Brown playing well before having to depart at half time after receiving a knock from a heavy challenge.
The game's opening goal came from the penalty spot in the twentieth minute after Tarpey had been pushed over by Aidan Sherlock. Despite a miss from his last opportunity against Eastbourne, Green remained the man on penalty duty and this time sent goalkeeper Simon Overland the wrong way to score.
The score remained 1-0 at the interval, reflecting Maidenhead's marginal superiority which had been far from convincing as United having scored at home for the first time since the opening day of the season, looked to close out the win.
Kicking down the slope in the second half Maidenhead gradually took control of the game as the visitors ran out of steam. Campbell put the ball in the net from a Tarpey cross eight minutes after the restart but was flagged offside. With Tashan Adeyinka coming on for Brown at the break, further fresh legs in the form of Ryan Upward and Reece Tison-Lascaris then gave United the pep they needed to accelerate into the next round by scoring three goals in the last twenty minutes.
The crucial second goal was rather fortunate as a shot across the box by Campbell struck a defender,  the ball looping over Overland's head into the back of the net in the sixty ninth minute. Ten minutes later Overland managed to push away a Tarpey shot, then had the woodwork to thank as from the resulting corner Tarpey fired the ball against the cross bar.
With both Tarpey in a conventional left midfield role, and Green playing with more freedom across the pitch, Maidenhead were beginning to torment their opponents, and with six minutes left Green found Adeyinka in space on the edge of the penalty area, the big forward thumping home his first goal for the club.
At 3-0 down, Faversham rallied slightly, forcing Putnins to scoop a corner to safety from under the bar and as injury time began Matthew Bourne hit the bar with a header. The £4,500 cheque for the winning team was soon signed, sealed and delivered though as Tison-Lascaris skipped through the defence in trademark fashion to score United's fourth.
Mission accomplished for the Magpies then with progress on the first of the three Cup fronts which will hopefully take up the lion's share of the autumn fixture schedule.

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