M2 Left Frustrated by Maidenhead
By Tom Beaumont
Men’s 2s 4 - 4 Maidenhead
The seconds travelled to Maidenhead on a grim Saturday morning. Unfortunately training in the week had been somewhat depleted, despite in theory being an adult team, the half term holidays had taken hold. Beaumont and Bartram were cruising round Amsterdam, Doidge had been flicking balls so hard his knee resembled Kyle Sinckler’s head, Evans was drowning his dog, Haycroft had taken his Casanova lifestyle international, and Linnell didn’t fancy it as none of his friends were going. Nevertheless with a good recent record we were confident of another win on the road.
Despite some last minute transport tweaks being required (Ore realising there’s simply no way that Brighton was on the way to Maidenhead from Surbiton) and Eddie Jones letting us down, preparation for the game on the day was good.
The first ten minutes of the match went exactly to plan, three well worked goals demonstrated the potential of this team and we all thought we would be cruising to another straight victory. Alas it was not the case. A Surbiton mistake meant Maidenhead claimed one back, then following a mistrap on the top of the circle from your correspondent, Evans made a tackle that even would have looked out of place in Bury on a Saturday night. The consequential stroke and yellow card rocked not only Surbiton but the until now impenetrable relationship that was Scotty and Rhys. Once they had stopped bickering at half time, Doidge made a few succinct remarks; “We’re 3-2 up, we’re winning the game,” “It’s tough when we only have ten men on the field”… I don’t think Creedy will be out of a job anytime soon… and we went back out determined to put it right.
Despite sustained pressure on the Maidenhead goal, one or two corners and playing nearly the whole game in their half somehow we went 4-3 down, Birdie finally made the right pass at a corner and Redders finished coolly into the top corner. As the final whistle went, James gave some constructive feedback to the men in yellow, Surbiton trooped off debating whether it was a point saved or two points lost and Scotty and Rhys re-started their domestic about the stroke/tackle/yellow card. All we know is that Rhys had to stay at his Mum’s that night.
We’ve now put ourselves in a situation where we have to beat Southgate in a huge home game on Saturday at 2pm. Rumour has it there might be a return for a former 2’s legend.
MOM: Jonny Bird
Not MOM: Beau