Difficult matches for Magpies against league's strongest sides

Maidenhead United Women suffered a difficult week with successive 4-1 defeats against two of the strongest sides in the FA Women’s National League Division 1 South West, but manager Ryan Taylor is looking at the positives ahead of the trip to bottom side Poole Town on Sunday.

The Magpies have retained their position in the top half of the table despite defeats to Chesham United and Cheltenham Town. Against Chesham at York Road last Wednesday night Maidenhead scored early on for the third home game in a row, striking through Simone O’Brien after good work from Nicole Barrett. Unfortunately the Magpies suffered from lapses of concentration which saw them trail 3-1 at the break and despite an improved second half showing the clinical visitors scored a fourth on the break.

Taylor was more satisfied with the performance at league leaders Cheltenham last weekend. Goalless at half time, Tina Brett tied things up after the hosts took the lead and it was only a brace of a late goals which gave the final outcome a rather one-sided look. Taylor reflected: “It was a good performance for 70 minutes of the game. But ultimately a few individual mistakes cost us towards the end of the game and the score line flattered them. I think we take away some positives despite the result, considering it was a tight contest for 70 minutes against the current league leaders. But we know there is no margin for error against the top sides and that’s what we need to get better at. It was great to finally get new signing Izzy Davis on the pitch who put in an excellent display, considering it was her first competitive game in over 3 months. We now turn our attention to Poole whilst trying to maintain our current league position.”