Cod Almighty | Match Stats

Saturday 25 September 2021

Conference Premier

Maidenhead United 1 Ferdinand (83)

Grimsby Town 1 Sousa (73)

Attendance: 1976 (828 away fans)

Well, he was persistent. That'll have to do.

It must have been that kit; too much insipid blue reminding him of his dog days at the Bunnymen. McAtee played like the bestest player in a rubbish school team, who just can't be doing with anything but fancy flicks and tricks. He strutted and strolled. We expect better because we know he can do better.

What more could he wish for on his birthday than a dour draw snatched from the jaws of fortune? And what, sir, of the New Parslow Point?

"I'd like to think it simply wasn't down to that"

You may think that; I couldn't possibly comment.

The other six minutes of muttering were entirely quibble free and darn right in stating what all could see:

"Overall, it just looked like an overall lack of enthusiasm to get on the ball, and just the energy levels seemed to be lower than I anticipated or wanted."

More on this

The Duke of Devonshire's been in the game a long, long, long time so remembered to prepare the ground by rotating his crops. And his rent-a-quotes:

"It would have been criminal if we didn't get something out of that."

He wasn't wrong though.

More on this

There was an undercurrent of entitlement on and off the pitch which translated into an enervated, underwhelming afternoon of preening and posing.

Town stole a goal and then handed back the proceeds of crime by laying breadcrumbs back to the hideout. The reversion to a back five just invited Maidenhead to do what they'd been trying and mostly failing to do all day long. It just made it easier for them to sling in their hooks.

Brief flurries of zest were insufficient. Doing enough rarely does enough in the inexact science of Bananaramaball.

Attitude. Wrong.

Maidenhead are not, intrinsically, individually, very good. They are what you would expect a club of their financial resources and history to be. They did what you would expect a "little" team to do against big, rich opponents. In other words they did what we used to do 20 years ago Twenty Thousand Leagues higher.

These marauding Mapgies simply worked very hard and stuck to the plan. The plan? Balls in the box, get stuck in. They did not deserve to lose. They didn't lose. Well done, good luck, now prick some of the other big time Charlies' balloons.

There was an acrid stench flowing from the inverted Bananarama snobbery.

Mr J Miles

If we have a complaint it's that there is nothing to complain about. Utterly unmemorable and unremarkable, especially when he unsaw Efete's back-pass. Nothing egregious, nothing to write home about: 7.888

Punting by the Thames.

In a word: arrogant