Bromley 0-2 Maidenhead United - We’re living off the start of the season a little bit, admits Bird

The closest The Lillywhites came to scoring was when strikers Leon McKenzie and Warren McBean both hit the same post in quick succession towards the end of the first half, before fourteenth placed Maidenhead bagged the points with two goals in five minutes through midfielders Daniel Brown and Ashley Nicholls.

Despite the game being hastily re-arranged only a couple of days ago, a decent crowd of 535 flocked through the turnstiles but they went home disappointed as Bromley went six games without any win at Hayes Lane.

“It was disappointing,” Bird told www.kentishfootball.co.uk,  as he emerged from the home dressing room after his side’s third league defeat of the season.

“First half, I thought we did ok.  We certainly did alright in our approach play up to the final third, where we wasn’t really good enough all evening to be fair.

“I thought the second half, after they scored, there was only one team in it, which is undoubtedly a problem. 

“They’ve got to learn, these guys, that in football whether you go one goal up, whether you go one-nil down, you’ve got to dust yourselves down, keep playing your football principles and we didn’t play to our football principles at all in the second half and quite honestly capitulated because of it.”

Bird was eager to get their embarrassing 7-0 away defeat to Weston-super-Mare out of their system, but their first home game for 51 days ended in a disappointing defeat against a workmanlike Maidenhead side.

Twenty-days since that fateful afternoon in Somerset, Bird admitted his players lacked match sharpness tonight.

“I think you see, even with the pro’s, when they don’t play they just lose an edge, we did!  There’s no doubt about that!  You can work as hard in training as you like but if you don’t play you do lose that match sharpness and we did today.  We lost that cutting edge all round the pitch today and that does come with games.”

A give-and-go move down the right involving Tony Finn and Leon McKenzie saw Finn whip in an excellent cross which was met by a bullet header from Maidenhead right-back Bobby Behzadi at the near post, but the ball screamed past his own post.

Maidenhead’s first chance arrived in the 19th minute when Cliff Akurang floated in a cross from the right and this was met by his strike partner Kieran Knight, but the ball bounced past the far post with Bromley keeper Craig Holloway struggling.

A tight affair, Maidenhead came within a lick of paint from opening the scoring four minutes later when Nicholls’ corner from the left caused havoc and Akurang slammed his shot through a crowd of players and onto the right-hand post, with Holloway beaten.

The only Bright spark for Bromley was the impressive first half performance from left-winger Harrison Dunk, who lit up Hayes Lane with his array of skills and penetrating runs.

He met Marlon Patterson’s floated free-kick on the turn and struck a left-footed shot, which flew just over Steve Williams’ crossbar just past the half-hour mark, before missing another chance.

Salifou Ibrahima slipped the ball through McBean’s legs to release Dunk, who sped past Behzadi at ease and drilled a left-footed shot high over the bar from 25-yards.

“Harrison did very well,” said Bird.  “Harrison’s a good player and today he was thrown a different challenge but like all challenges we offer Harrison he responds very well and he was a real positive today, he really was.”

Bird added: “You look at the likes of Arron Fray, that’s his first 90 minutes this season.  I don’t think you can ask for any more of him, I thought he did well.  

“I just see other than that it proved to be a disappointing night over the ninety minutes.”

Bromley twice came agonisingly close to grabbing the lead just before the break.

Dunk provided the energy that Bromley desperately needed with another penetrating run and Patterson supported him and floated in a cross towards the unmarked McKenzie, who saw his header loop over the stranded Williams and bounce off the left-hand post.  The ball fell kindly to McBean, who cut inside and slammed the ball against the same post.

Bird was cursing his luck at this point, saying that was “a big moment of the game,” adding, “There was definitely chances in the first half.  There should’ve been more chances because we got the ball in good areas and failed to deliver.

“There’s a real problem with our end product today but on the occasions where we did create clear-cut chances perhaps we should’ve done a little bit better, but it’s something we’ve got to recover from very quickly because we’re going into a really tough game at Dover.”

Within the opening five minutes of the second half, Dunk cut in from the left but his right-footed shot bounced comfortably into Williams’ arms.

Within a minute of that chance, Maidenhead carved open a decent chance when Knight centred for Akurang, who nipped in front of central defender Neil Sharp, only to blast the ball over from six-yards.

Bromley’s wide midfielder Tony Finn curled a left-footed screamer wide from 20-yards after McKenzie flicked the ball into McBean’s path.

Maidenhead United stunned the Bromley faithful by taking a 56th minute lead.

Skipper Nicholls played a delicious diagonal ball to pick out Sam Collins at the far post and he centred for Brown to shin the ball into the back of the net, despite Sharp’s efforts to hack the ball off the line.

Collins then drilled an angled left-footed drive into Holloway’s arms from 30-yards, but the Magpies ended the game as a contest in the 61st minute.

Collins teed the ball up for Nicholls, who turned and cracked a stunning left-footed curling screamer, which flew into the roof of the net, leaving Holloway rooted to the spot.

Reflecting on Maidenhead’s two goals, Bird said: “I had a problem with their first goal.  Actually we gave the ball away far too easily today from throw-ons in general.  Actually we had a throw on in around the middle third of the field, we’ve lost the ball, they’ve got the ball up field quickly, they’ve got the wrong side of our midfield runners and the first goal, I thought was defensively dreadful.

“The second goal, a great goal! I didn’t have a problem with.  It was a great strike and effectively finished the game, won the game for Maidenhead.”

Knight squandered an excellent chance when he was played through on goal but he dragged his shot just past the foot of the far post, with Bromley in disarray.

Bromley made a double substitution with 25 minutes remaining by bringing on Danny Hockton and Harry Harding, switching from a 4-4-2 formation to 4-3-3, but Hockton, McBean and McKenzie didn’t look like scoring.

Dunk met Finn’s header with a bullet header, which sailed over, and then substitute Reis Boyle came up for a corner but could only blaze his shot over from the edge of the box.

Maidenhead almost rubbed salt into Bromley’s wounds at the death when Kieron St Aimie’s diagonal pass released substitute Alex Wall, and his left-footed angled drive was pushed over by the Bromley goalkeeper.

The vast majority of fans had vacated the ground by the players disappeared down the players’ tunnel at the final whistle, as Bromley would have re-gained first place with at least a draw.

“Can’t add anything to that, we knew that before the game!” said Bird.

“Obviously a win would have been an ideal response from the Weston game, to have won today and gone top of the league, but we didn’t deserve to win.

“I thought ultimately they were the better team over the 90 minuets and they came away with a deserved victory at Hayes Lane and credit to Maidenhead.”

Bromley started the campaign with seven straight league wins - and went thirteen games unbeaten - but they are now struggling and Bird feels some players have lost form and confidence and winning at home is now a problem.

“I don’t think it’s so much a concern of our home form, but our current form,” explained Bird.

“I think we’ve won only two league games in our last 11, that is a very big worry.  We’re living off the start of the season a little bit and we’ve got to put that right as quickly as possible.

“It’s a number of things.  I don’t think it’s been one problem.  If it was only one problem that would’ve been solved easily and we would’ve moved on.

“I think it’s been a combination of things, the biggest thing being players at the start of the season were really on top of their game and probably playing a little bit above themselves to be fair.

“One or two have probably found their level, one or two have lost their form a little bit.  You see even at the highest level - with Chelsea - with the best players in the world suffer from crisis of confidence and I think there’s lost confidence issues on the pitch as well.”

Bromley: Craig Holloway, Arron Fray, Marlon Patterson, Wes Daly (Harry Harding 65), Jerrome Sobers, Neil Sharp (Reis Boyle 80), Tony Finn, Salifou Ibrahima (Danny Hockton 65), Leon McKenzie, Warren McBean, Harrison Dunk.

Subs: Ryan Dolby, Nicky Greene.

Maidenhead United: Steve Williams, Bobby Behzadi, Tom Baddeley, Ashley Nicholls, Marcus Rose, Andrew Fagan, Daniel Brown (Martel Powell 87), Kieron St Aimie, Cliff Akurang, Kieran Knight (Alex Wall 73), Sam Collins (Will Hendry 73).

Subs: Jonathan Munday, Dexter Burt

Goals: Daniel Brown 56, Ashley Nicholls 61

Attendance: 535

Referee: Mr Stuart Butler (Maidstone)

Assistants: Mr Simon Finnigan (Maidstone) & Mr Nick Dunn (Deal)