Last Monday was a bit of a shock wasn’t it? We’d shaped up well in our first three games, picking up two great wins over sides that were in the play-offs last season, and certainly shouldn’t have lost at Solihull, a difficult fixture which we dominated.

And then along came Maidenhead.

The Magpies were an unlikely stumbling block, as they’d lost their last 8 games. They’d even lost 4-0 at home two days earlier, but some statistics can be misleading.

After that game Hartlepool’s manager, far from enjoying a crushing away win, lambasted his side for their first half performance: if it hadn’t been for Maidenhead’s poor finishing, the match would have been over by half time!

That was a warning for us: clearly Maidenhead had more about them than their form suggested. Still, if we want to challenge for the title, we need to be ruthlessly dispatching the sides at the bottom of the table away.

Frankly, ruthlessness was what was missing from the performance, and I can understand why. In the first half we didn’t make enough chances but in the second, after switching to 4-4-2, the opportunities started piling up.

The problem was we didn’t take any of them.

It’s certainly not time to hit the panic button just yet though, as certain key circumstances went against us. I’m inclined, at the moment, to view the defeat more as one of those days rather than the start of a pattern.

For starters, despite a pleasing depth of options up front, we were actually lacking match-sharp strikers. Jake Bickerstaff and Anthony Jeffrey were out injured, while Jordan Ponticelli and Adi Yussuf were coming back from injury.

That left Kwame Thomas, Saturday’s match-winner, as the only forward who could be considered completely ready for action. Unfortunately, he lost his individual battle with Maidenhead’s towering centre-back Manny Parry.

Parry had been dropped on Saturday, but he’s been a consistently sturdy presence at this level for years, and he celebrated his recall with a superb display of the straightforward arts of defending. When he had to tackle, he tackled hard; when he had to clear, the ball went miles; when he combatted Thomas in the air, he was imperious.

As for Ponticelli, it was excellent to see him come through 90 minutes after the frustration of pre-season. It was the first time he’d got through a full match since the final game of last season, when he completed a 0-0 draw with Eastleigh.

Considering that, it was understandable that he was rusty in front of goal, and missed a couple of good chances. He found his range at the end of the game, and buried his third opportunity with aplomb, of course, but had ventured offside!

However, his all-round contribution was very good: the result and his missed chances were disappointing, but getting Ponticelli back up to speed has to be a consolation we can take from the game.

Yussuf got through pre-season in better shape than Ponticelli, but in terms of meaningful action he’s far more rusty. Incredibly, the last time he completed 90 minutes in a competitive match was over a year ago!

To be precise, his first match of last season for Solihull Moors, in September 2019, was also the only one he played from start to finish!

It didn’t show. He was very impressive when he came off the bench for the last 25 minutes.

I’ve been encouraged by the brief glimpses of a Thomas-Ponticelli partnership we were afforded in pre-season, although we didn’t have the opportunity to examine it much on Monday as Ponticelli played on the right in the first half.

The partnership between Ponticelli and Yussuf gelled immediately though. Yussuf was highly effective as he pinned the centre backs, backing into them before laying the ball off for Ponticelli to run onto. He did the same for Paul Rutherford too, leading to a clear penalty which the referee inexplicably failed to give.

Isn’t it frustrating how officials will immediately book a player for grabbing an opponent’s arm to stop him on the half way line, but won’t do a thing if the same offence is committed in the penalty area?

There were other circumstances which stacked up against us on Monday, such as the Jordan Davies error which cost us a goal in the midst of a performance which reminded us of his genuine talent.

These aren’t excuses: that’s just football. The beauty of this compressed season is that we will get a swift opportunity to make amends tomorrow. Wealdstone are a pacey team who will come at us, but perhaps that suits us more than trying to play our way through a packed defence.

At least the extra minutes Ponticelli and Yussuf have got into their legs means that we’ll hopefully have a bit more sharpness up from for our first visit to Grosvenor Vale.