By Neil Maskell
Maidenhead United Futsal is into season three as part of the MUFC family and it was high time I paid a visit. Sundays for me are usually matchday for our women’s teams, and as club secretary that brings a raft of paperwork and stats so I find it easier to be at the games and try not to miss many. After all, the less time our coaching staff attend to paperwork the more time they can spend on giving our players their full attention.
With MUWFC out of the Adobe Womens FA Cup a free Sunday opened up for me on Sunday 26th October as MUF men took on Loughborough Students in the National Futsal Series Tier 1. Yes, you are reading that correctly – our men’s Futsal team compete alongside the very best in the country and their line-up includes two England internationals. I joined Magpies media man Scott Hargreaves – on duty as scorer for the day – on the journey over to Bradfield College, west of Reading, to watch United take on a side with a 100% record after two matches of the NFS season.
I was very pleasantly surprised on arrival to bump into the Maynards and the Hanson family. Many regulars at York Road would recognise both families, who attend men’s and women’s home games and also follow the Magpies further afield away from home. The elder boys in both families – team mates in MUFC Juniors teams on both Saturday and Sunday – have fallen for Futsal having been coached by MUF player Joe Huxter who himself had his mother Claire in the crowd kicking every ball, another Futsal fanatic. The Maynard and Hanson families have thoroughly enjoyed attending the MUF men’s matches and both waxed lyrical about the exciting fast-paced nature of the matches.
I was only a partial Futsal spectating novice. I had watched some of the MUF matches covered live on TNT sports. But nothing beats being there, right? And my first impressions? The fast-paced nature of Futsal is a thrill to watch. Sat court-side, you feel almost part of the game yourself and such is the passion generated on the court and by the spectators and the coaching benches on the opposite side Kelly Hanson got a notification on her posh watch to tell her that decibel levels at one point reached ninety!
That is because – although United eased into a two-goal half time lead – the second period became a dramatic end-to-end affair due to a rule which provides the jeopardy that soccer can sometimes lack. A surprisingly physical affair to the novice, United committed five fouls in the second of two twenty-minute halves and when a sixth foul was committed a penalty kick – sent over the bar by the visiting goalkeeper – was awarded. The let off was only temporary however, as a seventh – disputed! – foul gave Loughborough a second opportunity, but when faced with United’s England international ‘keeper Jack Walsh (brother of Head of Futsal Ryan Walsh) the Students penalty taker again fired the opportunity over the top of the goal. The halves are played to the clock, which stops when the ball goes out of play so over almost ninety end-to-end, passionate, fast-moving and skilful minutes Maidenhead deservedly held out to record a clean-sheet and a second win in three league matches moved them into the top four of the ten-team top-flight.
With our MUF Women competing in tier two of the NFS WSS the future of Futsal across our clubs looks to be an exciting one. I attended Bradfield expecting that I might enjoy what I saw, but I left scrolling the fixtures and hoping that someone creates an eighth day of the week so that I can enjoy this full-blooded sport on a more regular basis!
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