A COMFORTABLE win over Salisbury on Saturday has put Maidenhead’s promotion campaign back on track.
However, there is still plenty of room for improvement, as they try to recapture some of the form that saw them competing for promotion in South West 1 just a few short seasons ago.
Saturday’s performance was certainly Maids’ best in the league this year, but they once again demonstrated a certain lack of concentration.
With the scores standing at 19-3, and with Maids firmly in the driving seat, the neutral observer might have expected the visitors to extend their lead.
However, an outburst, which ended with chief executive Simon Edwards being sent from the sidelines perhaps interrupted the flow of the game.
Then shortly after Cormac O’Byrne was sin-binned.
Manager for the month Andy Barron said: “It was a better performance this week, but there’s still a lot of work to do.
“There was a bit of heckling of the referee from the sidelines and Cormac paid the price for someone else’s indiscretion.
“I think it was a get-even sin-binning. We went off the boil after that and missed a couple of good opportunities.
“There were a lot of good things but we could have scored a lot more tries if it hadn’t been for some very basic handling errors.”
Tomorrow (Saturday), Maids entertain Stow-on-the-Wold at Braywick, with high hopes of improving their league position with another win.
Maids are currently in sixth position with six points from five games, having played one game fewer than their visitors.
If the past is any guide to the future, the result should go the hosts’ way, as they have a wealth of experience in the higher leagues.
In contrast, while Maids were dabbling with the national league in the 1990/1 season, Stow were playing their rugby in Gloucester 4.
However, six promotions over the next seven seasons have seen them rise to the heady heights of South West 2 East.
Tomorrow’s meeting is the first between the two sides in the league, an encounter Maids are looking forward to.
Barron said: “They’re a Gloucestershire side, so no doubt they’ll have a big lumpy pack.
“It will do us good to come up against a big pack. We’ve been dominating up front, so it should be a good contest.
“I’m genuinely looking forward to it.”
Barron’s brief spell at the helm comes to an end next week, when full time coach Tony Brooks makes a return to frontline action.
And, while he claimed to have enjoyed his spell on the touchline, Barron suggested he was now keen to win back his place in the squad.
He said: ”The backs aren’t 100 per cent yet, but there’s lots of competition for places and at the moment there’s not a space for me.
“I was on the bench last weekend, but I was happy with the way things were going, so I didn’t play myself.
“I’m still captain, but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens over the next few weeks.”