Maidenhead’s two-goal lead helped by a dubious second-half penalty proved too much despite a late strike from Josh Wright as the Fleet left York Road empty-handed.
There were two changes to the Fleet side that fell short against Sutton three days ago with Dominic Poleon returning to the side and Sha’mar Lawson earning his first start; Will Randall and Lewis Page were the players dropping to the bench.
A first-minute chance for the Fleet saw Lawson dispatch a shot from the edge of the box that was deflected out for a corner. At the other end, a free-kick from Reece Smith picked out Kevin Lokko but he headed wide.
Lawson went looking again to fire the Fleet in front. A delivery from Ben Chapman picked out the loanee but contact couldn’t be made and Maidenhead cleared their lines.
Wes Fonguck came even closer to finding the breakthrough when Rakish Bingham laid a pass forward as he ran into the box. He found himself unmarked but fired over the bar.
The Fleet forced a couple of corners and recycled a few of those, attacking the box with Craig Tanner and Fonguck trying to unpick the Magpies defence but there was little of note to trouble Craig Ross.
Maidenhead found the lead five minutes before half-time as Fleet lost possession in midfield and a quick-tempo attack by the hosts spread play to their left. A cross was cleared back out to Tristan Abrahams who slotted the ball past Mark Cousins to earn his fourth of the season.
The second-half was much the same as Ross was untested in the home goal before Tom Dallison tangled with Shawn McCoulsky. The Maidenhead striker made a meal of going over, the referee delayed a decision then appeared to change his mind thanks to his assistant and pointed to the spot. And it would be McCoulsky to step up and convert from the spot to double the hosts’ advantage on 56 minutes.
He might have grabbed a second a few minutes later when he muscled his way goalside of Mustapha Olagunju but he fired that one too far across goal and wide.
Fleet earned a little more possession in search of a way back – Fonguck fired towards goal on 64 minutes but that was saved by Ross whilst Chapman saw his effort blocked. Domi and Greg Cundle both had runs into the box and shots on goal but couldn’t break the Maidenhead line.
Poleon attempted to sneak a ball home late on but that was cleared off the line by Miles Welch-Hayes and Cundle fired wide through a gap on the rebound.
A goal did arrive for the Fleet in stoppage time, however, but sadly it was too little too late as a perfectly executed strike from captain Josh Wright arrowed over Ross and into the back of the net.
EUFC: Cousins, Chapman, Domi, Olagunju, Dallison, Wright, Fonguck, Lawson (Cundle 46), Tanner (Randall), Bingham, Poleon. Subs: Page, John, Tanga, Anthony, Berry
MUFC: Ross, De Havilland, Lokko, Ferguson, McCoulsky, Mitchell-Lawson (Barratt 81), Pettit, Smith (Uwakwe 85), Cochrane, Welch-Hayes, Abrahams. Subs: Collins, Carvalho, Sho-Silva, Massey, Ajose.
Attendance: 1,006
Photos: ©EUFC/EdMiller
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