Dan Nkrumah in action against Dagenham. Photo: Darren Woolley

--

Ryan Peters admits that Maidenhead United’s attacking quality during Saturday’s stalemate with Dagenham & Redbridge on Saturday was ‘dreadful’ at times.

Shorn of confidence off the back of three straight defeats and Tuesday’s less than inspiring 1-1 draw with Horsham on home soil, the Magpies once again failed to click in the final third, despite being handed a huge incentive to go on and record their first home league win this season.

On the half-hour mark, Freddie Ingram clattered through Matt Robinson inside his own area and referee Steven Swan had little hesitation as he sent the Daggers’ midfielder off.

Maidenhead have suffered similar moments themselves this season - having had four players sent off over the course of five matches earlier in the campaign and they unravelled in most of those matches.

On Saturday, they couldn’t unlock their visitors in the final 60 plus minutes of the contest and - if anything - Lee Allinson’s side created the game’s better chances as the game wore on.

“It’s probably a point gained because if you look at the chances they can score at the death,” said Peters.

“But after they went down to 10 men, I was expecting a hell of a lot more quality than we gave. It showed where we were light from a quality aspect. There was endeavour. I can’t ever knock that. But it was a perfect opportunity to go with some intent to score, with them being as deep as they sat and we rarely created anything.

“I’m looking at games here when we’ve gone down to 10 men and kept things tight and made it difficult. Sometimes it has that effect, and you do a little bit more, you work harder for your teammates. But there are teams that when we have gone down to 10 men have completely battered us. We didn’t do that to them.”

Dan Nkrumah perhaps had Maidenhead’s best moment when he turned his man close to the half-way line and raced through on Nathan Ashmore’s goal. His shot lacked conviction though and Ashmore was able to turn the ball around the post comfortably enough.

It sort of summed up Maidenhead’s struggles in attack this season and as Peters said afterwards, the endeavour is there but the quality is sadly missing.

Peters added: “I thought the quality was dreadful. It’s almost as if Dagenham knew that if you us have the ball in front of them, we’ll make a mistake and we kept doing that over and over again.

“We lacked ideas and lacked quality in the final third. I think we’ve gone through on goal, and you can say it’s a good save, but there are teams that don’t even go through on goal against us and manage to score. There was a need for us to be more clinical in the final third and we still allowed them opportunities in our own box.

“They put in good quality on the counter which allows them to land on it and potentially score. We would attack but the quality going in wasn’t particularly good, so it doesn’t allow us to attack or pick up the second balls to keep attacks alive. Again, I can’t knock our endeavour but the quality we have at the moment is poor. ‘”

Dagenham held out for a draw and possible should have won it with some of the late chances they carved out. Maidenhead drop a place to 19th in the table, four points above the drop zone, but these back-to-back home draws at least give them something to build on as they look to rediscover their clinical edge.

Next up for them is a trip to fellow strugglers Hampton & Richmond Borough on Saturday. Peters has urged his players to take the bull by the horns and make things happen for the team rather than relying on others to create chances or get the team out of trouble.

“I think a lot of our boys are second guessing themselves. Shall I make that pass that pass forward, I think they’re worried about making a mistake,” he said.

“That’s natural when you’re low on confidence but if you never take the chance, you’ll never create the opportunity to score. We’re hoping someone else will create that opportunity for us rather than taking the bull by the horn and doing it themselves.

“I think we just have to throw caution to the wind and go for it. Before we were sliding balls through for players to go for it, but we’ve stopped doing that. Before we thought we’d give it a go and if it doesn’t work out the boys behind us will mop it up.

“But because we keep making mistakes at the back, the boys don’t want to make that killer pass. While we’re trying to stop the leaks at one end, we’re not being free flowing at the other.”