The gaffer reflects on being forced to a replay against Maidstone United.
The good news; Boro are in the hat for the 2nd Round of the FA Cup. The bad news; Boro will need to negotiate a tricky replay away at Maidstone after a goal-less draw here at The Lamex on Sunday afternoon.
Prior to the game GW preached caution and the importance of not underestimating their lower league opposition and early into the game you could see why. Maidstone had a number of fine chances to take the lead throughout the match and if it wasn’t for the heroics of Chris Day and his defence, the game could have gone in a different direction.
As the game wore on Boro began to turn the screw and had a flurry of late opportunities, which included the woodwork twice being hit as Roarie Deacon and then Chris Beardsley were denied.
Speaking after the game, GW praised the travelling Maidstone team.
“We knew that today was going to be difficult. They’ve got a team that’s way above its level. They’ve won as many games as they have in their league because they’re better than the level they’re at. Anyone who thinks that we were playing a lowly Ryman Premier League side today, think again, because they’re a decent outfit.
“We knew their front four would cause us problems and they did, our defenders worked so hard and diligently to keep their clean sheet. Daisy had to make one great save towards the end to keep nil-against and we knew they’d test us, I was under no illusions about that.
"Going forward we didn’t move the ball as quickly as we could have done. I think we allowed them to suck us into the trap of playing in front of them and when we did go wide, we came inside, came into the pockets and into the melee of players. Ours isn’t the widest pitch, we couldn’t really stretch them in the wide areas and it was only late on when they tired that we really did get in down the sides and nearly got the winner that would have seen us through.”
Although a replay was not what anybody at the club would have wanted prior to kick-off on Sunday, the gaffer reminded us that it could have been so much worse.
“We’re not one of the sides at this moment in time that’s suffered the ignominy of going out at this stage. There are others that’s gone, others that have paid the price for getting it wrong. We didn’t underestimate them we knew they were going to be a tough challenge. The boys now obviously have met their match, they know what they’re up against. Second time round we’ve got the advantage of knowing the players that we’re playing against and we’ll get the opportunity of winning our way through to the 2nd round."