'Resilient and ruthless' – Peters lauds Maidenhead United's grit after Bath City blitz

Maidenhead United finally cut loose in the National League South last night (Tuesday), scoring four unanswered goals to sweep aside hosts Bath City and secure their third straight league win.

While assistant boss Ryan Peters was delighted by the performance and the result, which saw the Magpies get off to a perfect start when Jack Batten headed past his own keeper after just 35 seconds, it was their resilience and ability to weather a storm that most impressed him.

This new-look Magpies side hadn’t quite clicked in their opening four matches, but they’re making up for lost time and the Romans had no answer for their slick offensive play in the first half.

It helped that they got off to such a great start, but further goals from Josh Popoola in the 24th minute and Liam Dulson in the 36th minute effectively put this game to bed before half-time.

Popoola curled home his second of the night in the 52nd minute to further stretch their lead, but the Magpies showed a willingness to compete for every ball and match the Romans’ physicality, something Peters highlighted this after the final whistle.

That was typified by captain Will de Havilland who was forced off with an injury midway through the second half.

In his post-match interview with Shay Bottomley, Peters said: “We made a terrific start, and it always helps when you can score so early on.

“It was a good display, but there are still elements of our game that we need to work on. Straight after we scored, they hit the crossbar, which came to our rescue. But after that i felt we were good value. We managed to transition well enough to give us a platform. We scored goals at the right time and yeah, it was a good performance.

“It felt good, and it’s been part of our play for a little while now. Crossing the ball into the box and hopefully someone will make a mistake. It led to that goal and gave us a platform to build on.

“There’s an element of our game that is coming on and that’s managing transitions and being defensively resolute. We weathered a few storms and, in those moments, we’re now putting our head where it hurts and that wasn’t there at the start of the season. Typical of our captain, we’re putting our bodies on the line.

“This squad is fresh, so we don’t have to think about what happened last season. Everyone has gelled and there are some fantastic characters. But the players aren’t afraid to put their body where it hurts.

“That wasn’t in evidence at the start of the season but it’s there now. We’ve been strong and resolute defensively.”

The win at Bath lifted the Magpies from 14th to sixth in the National League South table and they’ll have a chance to make it four wins in a row when Chelmsford City visit York Road this Saturday. Ninth placed Chelmsford have generally been hard to beat this season, picking up three narrow wins, but their solid start was checked by a surprise 5-2 defeat at home to Farnborough on Monday evening.

Despite this setback, Peters expects them to be back on their game when they come to Berkshire.

He also thanked Maidenhead’s travelling fans for their ‘magical’ support at Twerton Park last night.

He said: “It’s Chelmsford City at home on Saturday. I hope we’ll go into it with confidence, I don’t know what else we could do if confidence wasn’t high. It’s a massive game but then so was tonight.

“It’s a massive team with a massive budget but we’re high on confidence now. It’s about recovering and making sure we’re ready for Saturday.

“Our fans were also fantastic tonight, they were magical. I spoke about us being under the cosh and weathering a few storms but hearing them every time we went for a header or put our bodies on the line. Hearing them roar spurred us on.”