Writing 'not yet on the wall' for Maidenhead says head coach Mobbs-Smith

Greg Smith. Photo: Paul Morgan

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Head coach David Mobbs-Smith admits Maidenhead have a series of ‘unpredictable and uncontrollable’ situations to navigate in the coming weeks if they’re to survive in the Regional 1 South Central Division.

Maids dipped into the bottom two for the first time since the opening day of the season after Saturday’s 38-26 loss away to relegation rivals Wimbledon, and with a tough looking run in compared to their rivals on paper, the odds on them surviving the drop don’t look particularly promising.

However, they may still have hope of finishing outside of the bottom two and going into a relegation play-off at the end of the season, as four of their remaining six matches are at home, where Maids pick up most of their good results.

 They’re now four points adrift of Wimbledon, who took Saturday’s game away from them either side of half-time when they raced from a narrow 12-5 lead into a commanding 31-5 lead. Camberley are also now two points above them, with Hammersmith sitting eight points behind them at the foot of the table. 

A betting man might be best advised not to lay a stake on Maids’ survival; however, Mobbs-Smith says the writing is ‘far from on the wall’ for his side despite them having been backed into a more precarious situation.

   They now need to win a decent share of their remaining matches, which start at home to London Scottish Lions on February 14, however, with the play-off system in place at the top and bottom of the division this season - there are many uncontrollables which could seal Maidenhead’s fate.

“The uncontrollable of those fixtures, the games where they play each other.,” said Mobbs-Smith.  “They’re unpredictable. Hammersmith aren’t completely out of the fight yet if they win both of those matches. They’d be back to within touching distance looking for maybe one more win.

“They won’t be writing themselves off yet, and last season they managed to wriggle out. They’ll be hoping for something similar. 

“We’d like them (Hammersmith) to win both of those matches (against Camberley and Wimbledon), and then there would be four of us competing to stay up. We’ve got to keep ourselves in the hunt. Nothing has changed, we’ve just got to beat better sides, or better sides on paper. But four of those games against better sides are at home. We lost narrowly to Wimbledon and Camberley away from home. To the last play of the game against Camberley.

“We were in those matches, so it’s not like we’re in despair over how we played but unfortunately, our main rivals got more points than us.”

Mobbs-Smith is intrigued by how the play-off matches might impact the remaining weeks of the season. Previously, mid-table teams would have had little to play for, but that’s all changed. 

“We have to see how the new play-off system impacts these matches,” he said.

“How will they impact a team that’s sitting say, sixth. Are they still in contention for the play-offs so will they come to us all guns blazing.

“Our last game of the season is home to CS Stags. If they’ve already qualified for the play-offs in second place, what will they bring to us when they know they’ve got a big fixture coming up that they’ll have to win to get promoted.

“There are going to be those unpredictables and uncontrollables. Worthing won’t be anywhere near fighting for a promotion play-off, so we’ll have to see how they are when we travel there. It’s a psychological thing. What happens to those teams that are fourth to seventh who are nowhere near the play-offs for either. Their season will effectively be over while other teams at the top and bottom will be fighting for their lives.

“It might be in our favour, or we might find those teams are simply too good for us.”

He added: “We had an amazing training session last night, the energy was incredibly high and it’s a buoyant camp, so you wouldn’t know we were where we were. It’s not a defeatist environment. The lads are up for the fight there’s no question about that. There’s not a feeling that the writing is on the wall, it’s just that the task is a little harder now than it was on January 6.”

They’ll next host London Scottish Lions, one of the teams likely to be in the mix for a promotion play-off. That match takes place at Braywick Park on Saturday, February 14.

“Away from home we just weren’t competitive against them,” said Mobbs-Smith. “It was our weakest performance of the season, but we’ve performed weakly against teams away from home before and then beaten them at our place.

“We’re often a completely different side at home but we have to perform against some very good sides now.”