Maldon returned back to Lower Plume looking to build on their two great results from recent weeks against an unknown Valley Green side in their first ever meeting.

Maldon made a couple of changes to their side with Alfie Murphy dropping out through illness seeing Kian Liyanage start on the right hand side of midfield, Alfie Allum return to the centre of defence in place of Felix Blay and Oliver Gilbert Bryan starting up front in place of Kieran Evans, who had missed training through illness.

Maldon started well and showed some signs of the excellent pass and move football they had become used to in the opening 5 minutes, however this was short lived and Maldon seemed to struggle from then on. The heavy pitch wasn’t helping Maldon’s natural style and the team appeared flat across the board.

Defensively they demonstrated the huge improvements that had been seen in recent weeks with Ollie Leeks, Alfie Murphy and Daniel Emerson ensuring that Harry Smith had very little to do again. It was going forward that Maldon looked a bit short of energy and ideas. Half way through the half two changes seemed to liven Maldon with Sam Hinton and Kieran Evans replacing Oliver Gilbert Bryan and Kian Liyanage and Leo Ellingham switching wings. This seemed to invigorate Maldon slightly and they looked more threatening going forward but still couldn’t create that clear cut chance. Casey Stevenson and Mason May were not controlling the midfield in quite the same way they had in the last couple of games and gaps were appearing, however there were occasional glimpses of what Maldon cold do, one of these saw the ball drop to Mason May on the edge of the box but he couldn’t shift the ball to get a clean strike away the chance was gone.

The introduction of Felix Blay for Ollie Leeks saw Maldon’s defence continue to look solid, the only real chance Valley Green created was through an excellent switch of play which carved open the defence but a good recovery tackle saw it come to nothing. Maldon continued to have the better of the play but strong defensive play from Vipers and poor decision making and Panthers being slow to react at times meant at half time it remained 0-0

Maldon started the second half in similar vein to the first half, being on top but not really creating any good clear cut chances. Sam Hinton worked tirelessly down the left wing and was a constant threat to the Valley Green back line putting in some excellent crosses which Maldon couldn’t convert.

Maldon rotated their midfielders with Leo Ellingham, Casey Stevenson, Kian Liyanage and Oliver Gilbert Bryan all rotating alongside Mason May and Sam Hinton, looking to create a way through but Valley Green stood firm. Mid way through the second half Maldon’s greater share of possession eventually found a break through when another attack looked to be wasted but the ball somehow broke to Kieran Evans just outside the box who steadied himself and fired low into the bottom corner off the post. 1-0.

Maldon could and maybe should have had a penalty but shouts were turned down by the referee. Maldon continued to have a greater share of possession with no real further chances of note the defence stayed strong giving Harry Smith a second clean sheet in three games. Not the greatest performance and Maldon have certainly showed they are capable of much better than this but they worked to grind out a good victory and keep the promotion push alive.