It was billed as a crucial tie for Maidenhead United in the Magpies bid to stay in the Vanarama National League, but a 1-0 defeat at Dagenham & Redbridge leaves the Berkshire side firmly in the relegation zone.
Ebbsfleet United are already down, but the nature of the Pyramid below – splitting into North and South divisions – means there are still three places to be settled and Maidenhead occupy number 23 of 24.
Dagenham are not safe either but a Josh Rees strike in the 54th minute was enough to take a vital three points while FA Trophy semi-finalists Woking eased their own concerns with a 2-1 win at Braintree Town.
A win or even a point for Maidenhead, considering recent form in beating the likes of Oldham Athletic and Gateshead would have been the ideal platform going in to the final games of the season with fixtures against their relegation rivals Wealdstone, Boston United and Woking as well as the already down Ebbsfleet to come.
Alan Devonshire’s side could certainly give the York Road faithful a boost with positive performances against Tamworth and FC Halifax United in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, Slough Town have gone from ‘on the beach’ to ‘in trouble’ after a performance at struggling Weymouth that left manager Scott Davies speechless.
Writing on Social Media after a heavy 4-0 defeat in Dorset, Davies said: “Speechless after that one. Most definitely didn’t see it coming but fair play to Warren and Weymouth, they were better than us from minute one.”
Weymouth are 23rd of 24 in the division and looking likely to join Aveley in being relegated from Step 2 at the end of the season – so the nature and size of the defeat was certainly a surprise. It means Slough are only eight points clear of the drop zone after St Albans City won at home to Farnborough.
It certainly seems unlikely that Slough will go down this season. Davies’ side have the points on the board and comes after taking four points from the last two games, but might just be a bit of a wake up call with five games remaining.
