Maidenhead 0-1 Dagenham & Redbridge ( att : 1,551 )

September 7, 2019

I last went to Maidenhead 5 years ago when they were struggling in Conference South and under 300 people saw them lose to Whitehawk. In those days you could take drinks from the bar to the terrace, but now they are in the Conference National this is verboden, and although there is an outside area where you can have a drink, it is not in view of the pitch.

I went to the match with my old friend of mine, whose office is in the road leading to the ground ( so very convenient for parking ! ) and we had a pint inside the ground, but outside if you get my drift, before kick-off. Maidenhead stood 4th before the match and whilst Dagenham were mid-table they were on an unbeaten run of 6 matches. Two famous managers were on view, Alan Devonshire for Maidenhead ( who now looks like how Jim Brannan used to from Eastenders ) and Peter Taylor for Daggers. The match programme mentioned Taylor played for England whilst playing in the 3rd level of football, but failed to mention he once managed England ( and made David Beckham captain ! ).

I had never seen Dagenham play before, not in any of their previous forms, either as Dagenham or any of the East End clubs that the Redbridge Forest monster consumed in the 80s and 90s ( Ilford, Walthamstow Avenue, Leytonstone among them )

The match was a proverbial contrast of styles, Dagenham playing neat passing football, whilst Maidenhead tried to get the ball early to their two pacy forwards. Dagenham hit the post from a corner, but it remained 0-0 at half-time

We went for a half-time pint and after a while heard a small cheer. We drank up and returned to see Maidenhead kicking off. Just in case we had missed a goal, I checked the BBC website on my phone, which said 0-0. I checked again a few minutes later and it still said 0-0.  The game continued to be pretty even and with about 20 minutes to go, I checked all the scores again to see it was 0-1 and we had missed a 46th minute penalty !

Maidenhead had one big chance to equalise, a good save and the follow-up cleared off the line. However, it looked more likely to be 0-2 rather than 1-1, and Maidenhead's keeper made two very good saves to keep it 0-1.

The last few minutes fizzled out and Dagenham continued their move up the table.

Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWYUuKb4RMc