MAIDENHEAD’S victory over Gordano in the Powergen Cup has set up a tantalising double-header against old foes Swanage & Wareham, who travel to Braywick tomorrow (Saturday) for the second round of the competition.
What will make the match particularly interesting, is that the two teams are scheduled to meet again in a week’s time, as the Dorset side return to Maidenhead for a league clash.
Last year, Maids just edged the home game in South West 1, before tra-velling to the West Country and dishing out a 50-3 drubbing on their home turf.
However, both teams will be targeting promotion rather than a cup run this year, so a tactical game of cat and mouse is almost certainly on the cards.
Maidenhead coach Tony Brooks said: “We don’t want to show too much of our hand in the cup game.
“Obviously we still want to win it. We want to win every game we play.
“But we don’t want to show them everything we can do. I want to have something in reserve for the league game.
“It’ll be interesting.”
However, Brooks is determined that his team should play better than they did in their comprehensive win over Gordano last week.
He explained: “I was satisfied with the result, but not with the quality or consistency of our performance.
“In the first half I was standing there thinking ‘These guys can play’.
“The strategy was right and they were operating it effectively.
“But in the second half we played very poorly by the standards we are setting ourselves.
“I think the guys switched off a bit and we let Gordano back into the game.
“When good sides are ahead they keep the pressure on and keep pounding away.
“We have to learn how to do that. I want to see us really pushing ourselves.”
Tomorrow’s match kicks-off at 3pm.