Tarpey nets injury-time winner on debut as Marlow defeat Uxbridge

Rhys Harper scored twice in the first half for Marlow. Credit: Paul Paxford

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Dave Tarpey scored an injury-time winner on his Marlow debut as the Blues defeated Uxbridge 3-2 at Oak Tree Road, despite not playing any competitive football for nearly a month.

A series of washouts and waterlogged pitches have thwarted the Blues progress of late, after they dismantled Leatherhead 4-0 at home on October 28.

Since then, the side have been kicking their heels while rivals for Isthmian League South Central promotion have returned to action.

But on Tuesday evening, they finally returned to action on home turf and got the result they were looking for thanks to the predatory instincts of Tarpey, who signed from Leatherhead last week.

The former Maidenhead United striker – who broke the record for goals in a single season in the year the Magpies won the National League South title – was named as a substitute on Tuesday, and it didn’t look like his presence would be needed as two first half goals from Rhys Harper fired the Blues into a comfortable lead.

However, the Blues were a little ring-rusty after not playing in over three weeks, and Bernard Mensah cut the deficit from the spot before half-time before Mahlondo Martin drew Uxbridge level early in the second period.

Shortly after that manager Mark Bartley turned to Tarpey and, after showing a few quality touches in his 25-minute cameo, he grabbed the winner in typical Tarpey fashion. Bartley brought him in to give the Blues an edge in tight matches such as this, believing that you must be in the market for players of his quality if you’re serious about getting promoted.

Reflecting on the win, their sixth on the spin in the league, Bartley said: “The last three weeks have been difficult without having any games. One of the benefits of having that time out is we were able to work on bringing in someone to help us. Thankfully that is Dave Tarpey and he turned up yesterday (Tuesday) in typical fashion.

“It was a great evening all round from that perspective.

“We felt like we were in a good space, and you want to keep the momentum going. We now have a real fixture pile-up between now and January but all we can do is try and win the next game.

“We conceded a couple of sloppy goals yesterday, but we kept going and kept asking questions and for that reason alone it would be hard to say we didn’t deserve to win.

“Uxbridge came into the game off the back of a massive win over Badshot Lea, who had been 15 unbeaten or something, so they were in good spirits and good form. They scored twice and had the momentum in the game, but we managed to wrestle it back and got the winner in the fifth minute of injury-time.”

He added: “When I was speaking to the chairman about trying to bring him in, I told him we’d had a great start and done well. But there are certain games that are going to be a bit more difficult for us. Last night was one of those. They’d got it back to 2-2 and I thought, let’s get him (Tarpey) on the pitch.

“He showed four moments of quality, one of which was the goal and that was the difference. Without him, we probably draw that game and that is the reality of it. I probably would have been saying a point against a good Uxbridge side after three weeks out is not the worst in the world, but turning some of those draws into wins is why we brought him in.”

Marlow sit fifth in the table, six points behind current leaders Southall with three matches in hand, ahead of Saturday’s game at Ascot United.