Ryan Peters: 'Terrible' team performance cost Maidenhead United in derby defeat

Magpies boss Ryan Peters bemoaned a ‘terrible’ team performance as Maidenhead United squandered a man advantage to suffer a damaging derby defeat.

When referee Richard Wharton sent Slough winger Basil Tuma off in first half injury time, the momentum of the tie appeared to swing firmly towards the hosts.

But despite starting the second half positively, Maidenhead struggled to carve out any clear cut opportunities and were soon punished as Slough defender Kiki Oshilaja stabbed home from a set piece with 20 minutes to play.

A boisterous home crowd may have hoped for a grandstand finish but instead desperation seeped in with the hosts failing to trouble a resolute Slough backline.

The full time whistle brought jubilant scenes among the visiting supporters while the Magpies faithful trudged to the exits following another disappointing derby day display.

Peters told the Advertiser: “We started off brightly, get a goal early and then they have a man sent off and you assume that should be everything we need to impose ourselves, be fluid and score more goals.

“It was the opposite. It galvanised them and did very little for us.

“There were some really bad individual performances but collectively as a team we were terrible.”

He added: “It’s always harder when a team sits deeper and naturally you do that when you go down to 10 men.

“It was down to us to break them down but we didn’t do that. We passed in front of Slough for 25 minutes which was easy for them to defend against.”

Maidenhead’s Boxing Day defeat put a halt to their resurgent league form which saw them go five games unbeaten.

Peters is now keen to ensure the Magpies learn quickly from their disappointing derby day performance and return to winning ways.

“To lose in the manner we did today, against our rivals, against 10 men and conceding three goals, it’s absolutely not what we want.

“We had the plaudits when everything was going well and I was happy to smile and take them. Now I’m going to have to take it when it’s not going so well.”

Maidenhead travel to Horsham on Saturday for a game which could prove pivotal for their hopes of maintaining a push for the play-off places.

Peters added: “We’ve had two opportunities in the last two games to go into the play-offs. We got a draw against Hemel and didn’t play particularly well and then we come up against our rivals and perform like that.

“We’re going to go through the analysis to understand why we’ve had a shift in performance, why we’ve had a shift in energy levels and make sure we are ready when we go to Horsham.”