'By hook or by crook' – Peters targets play-off spot after gritty draw with Torquay United

Josh Umerah and Matt Robinson. Photo: Darren Woolley

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Ryan Peters was happy to admit Maidenhead United rode their luck at times during Saturday’s 1-1 draw with league leaders Torquay United.

The Magpies had their moments on the break at Plainmoor and the interim boss felt they were good value for the crucial point they collected.

However, he didn’t want to sugar coat the performance and conceded Torquay created the game’s clearer-cut chances.

That Torquay didn’t score them owes much to the resilience of the Magpies defence and the reflexes of their Dutch goalkeeper Jordi Van Stappershoef, who pulled off several crucial saves.

But the Magpies could also have earned all three points with the chances they carved out on the break, having levelled matters early in the second half through Josh Umerah’s fabulous curling free kick.

Sonny Blu Lo-Everton had fired the Gulls in front in the latter stages of the first half, but the Magpies held firm in the face of considerable pressure at Plainmoor.

“I think we rode our luck at times, there’s no point in sugar coating it, but if you have a look at some of the counter attacks we had, both teams had chances and could have won the game at the end,” said Peters.

“So maybe a draw is a fair result. As far as I’m concerned, Torquay are the best team we’ve played over two games, both home and away. They’ve been brilliant and I can see why they were top of the league when we played them.

“I thought our defending was fantastic throughout and that’s enabled us to come away with a draw. Unfortunately, while we got a great point away from home, we’re now six points away from the play-offs which isn’t so great.

“The last two games I’ve been incredibly impressed with our defending. I suppose when we first started, we were blowing teams away with our passing style and winning games that way.

“But the last two or three games we haven’t been able to pass as fluently as we’d like to, so the other side of our game has become important to us. It’s been good to see we can be defensively resilient and have kept clean sheets.”

Maidenhead have shown of late they don’t have to blow away teams with incredible flowing football to win matches or pick up points. They haven’t been at their best in their last few matches, but Peters says picking up points is much more important than the style of football at present.

On Saturday they welcome Dagenham & Redbridge, to York Road. The Daggers sit just behind the Magpies in the standings, but are level with them on points. They also beat the Magpies 1-0 at Victoria Road in November, with Devonshire announcing his decision to stand down a few days later. Peters insists they can’t be allowed to take another three points from the Magpies this weekend.

“It’s important now and I felt it was the same against Farnborough,” said Peters.

“Teams that beat us earlier in the season cannot come away from these games with another three points. They are a good team. Yes, we played well there, but they took the points.

“In the last two games we haven’t played as well as I would like us to, but we’ve come away with points. We cannot afford to lose any more ground in our play-off push so right now it’s about getting points over the style.

I haven’t checked the table recently but I’m pretty sure that if they win, they’d jump above us, so that’s the carrot for them. We must make sure we keep them below us and as far below us as we can. A win will help do that.

“This league is relentless and any team can beat anyone on their day. But also, the teams above are holding onto those places. Fortunately, some of those teams are going to play each other and takes points off each other. But we must do our job and that’s winning as many games as we can. We’ve had a few attempts to get ourselves into the play-offs with games that we had in hand and we haven’t taken them. Those teams above us are not going to give us many more opportunities to do so. But the remit is clear, we must win as many games as we can over the rest of the season and by hook or by crook, get into those playoffs.”

The ninth placed Magpies have six points to make up on the teams currently sitting in the play-off spots.