Ryman League Premier Division

0 Maidenhead United v Sutton United 2

Sutton made the most of two defensive mistakes to take all the points. The condition of the pitch was awful making any kind of passing difficult so most of the time the ball was played over the top. Apart from the opening ten-minute minutes, when the players got to grips with the poor conditions, the game wasn’t very entertaining with very few chances at either end.

Maidenhead could have taken the lead with only forty seconds on the clock when a cross came in from the left for an unmarked Lee Channel hit his shot at Gareth Howells. Four minutes later Sutton lobbed the ball up field for Maidenhead defender Steve Croxford to try and head the ball back to his keeper. Unfortunately because the pitch was so muddy the ball didn’t go near the keeper but did allow Danny Bolt to run in front of the goal and around the keeper for the opening goal. Maidenhead almost equalled the game after a minute when the ball was crossed into the area for Chris Ferdinand to rise unmarked and head back across the goal but saw his header go wide. Just after the miss Sutton won a free kick on the edge of the goal area and Dave Harlow stepped up to take it. His kick flew over the wall and was on target but Richard Barnard saved well. A minute later Brian Conner was dispossessed by Bolt on the edge of the area, Bolt then looked up to see the keeper off his line. Danny Bolt then brilliantly chipped the ball over the keeper to make it two nil.

The second half didn’t see much goal mouth action as the pitch looked to become more boggy as the game went on making it harder to control and play the ball. There were only two good chances in the second half both fell to Maidenhead but the forward just couldn’t find a way passed Howells. The first chance fell to Matt Glynn after Howells was unable to hold on to a corner but Glynn could only find the side of the net. The last chance of the game fell to Tim Cook after both Channel and Glynn had been denied by good saves by Howells. Cook took his shot from the edge of the area before shooting low toward the left corner but Maidenhead were again stopped by Howells.

High Point Bolt and Howells playing well and giving match winning performances.

Low Point The state of the pitch didn’t help us with our midfield game.