Vanarama National League, Monday 29th August
I was over at Roots Hall on Bank Holiday Monday and saw goals from Gus Scott-Morriss & Callum Powell help seal Southend United all three points after a commanding win over Maidenhead United.in the Vanarama National League.
Both sides have had similar starts to the season, and both were in the lower reaches of the table as a result of mixed starts, The Blues only win of the season came in their last home game against Oldham Athletic, whilst Maidenhead's only two wins so far both came at home against Scunthorpe United and Altrincham, but since then they had lost two on the bounce.
Goal scoring has also been an issue for both sides, the hosts had only three goals in their five league starts thus far, whereas Maidenhead were fractionally ahead and had just five goals from their five games, so this would need to improve if they were both to start climbing the table that was for sure.
The Blues dominated the opening exchanges, but they almost fell behind in bizarre fashion just before the midway point of the first period when Wesley Fonguck sent a pass back towards his own keeper Collin Andeng-Ndi, but the pass was misplaced and headed towards his own net, and the hosts keeper managed to stretch out a leg to prevent it from going in, it was the only effort on target the visitors had, and they had nothing to do with it!!!
After that rather heart stopping moment for the hosts, they went back up the other end and earned a corner, and from this corner they grabbed a deserved lead when right-back Scott-Morriss, who was making his full debut for the Shrimpers, stooped to head home a corner from Dan Mooney, and the home fans were up on their feet applauding what had been a superb start to this contest for their side.
Could Maidenhead, who were backed by 102 of their own fans in a crowd of over 5,000 once again at Roots Hall, respond? Their only other real effort at goal, apart from that near own goal from the hosts, saw an Adrian Clifton header go over the crossbar, but it was the hosts who had a slender lead to take into the break. It had been a decent game so far, and the hosts had certainly edged the contest with some decent football it has to be said.
A lot of The Blues threat was coming from Mooney & Powell, they had caused the visitors defence all kinds of problems in the first period, and early on in the second half they combined to double the blues lead, and it was a fabulous goal too, as Mooney did brilliantly down the right with some awesome skill before his cutback was turned in by Powell for his second goal in as many matches, and The Shrimpers were well on their way to a second successive home win.
The Blues looked to kill the game off now, and with twenty minutes remaining saw visiting goalkeeper Dan Gyollai keep out a 25-yard effort from Mooney, but with eleven miniutes left Maidenhead almost found a goal back when a ball forward saw Shawn McCoulsky run onto it and with keeper Andeng-Ndi stranded he poked it beyond him and saw the ball rolling towards goal, but Tom Clifford chased after the ball and heroically cleared it off the line to prevent the goal and preserve the clean sheet.
That pretty much ended any hopes of the visitors had of getting back into the contest, a contest The Blues controlled for a large majority, and they so nearly capped a fine display with what would have been a unbelievable third when after what seemed a million passes amongst the home side, bringing out the ole's in the process, it ended with a pass from Aaron Cosgrave finding Mooney whose effort struck the post before coming back to the striker, but he could only fire the rebound over when he really should have found the net.
It mattered not though as The Shrimpers heard the full time whistle soon after and took the applause from the home fans who were more than happy with what they had seen today, a good performance and hopefully for them something to build on no doubt, that's two home wins on the bounce now and none conceded, maybe they can make Roots Hall into a fortress once again?
As for Maidenhead, yes they had brief moments in attack, but they were second best in large parts of this contest and it's three losses in a row now with no goals scored, this will be a slight concern for them going forward no doubt, but it's still early days as they say so plenty of time to sort things out and no need to panic just yet.
Full time Southend United 2 Maidenhead United 0
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