Maidenhead preparing for 'do or die clash' with bottom club Hammersmith & Fulham

Maidenhead’s trip to bottom of the table Hammersmith & Fulham has been described as a ‘do or die’ clash by their head coach David Mobbs-Smith, who admits it will be almost impossible for Maids to dig themselves out of the bottom four if they lose in London this weekend.

Maids currently sit ninth in the Regional 1 South Central Division standings, level on 16 points with 10th placed Camberley and 11th placed Wimbledon - with Hammersmith a few points further adrift in last place. But they’re now a whopping 12 points behind eighth placed Worthing and a big gap is starting to widen between the bottom four and the rest.

This season the teams finishing in the bottom two will be relegated automatically, while the teams in ninth and 10th will face each other in a relegation play-off off. The loser will then go on to take on one of the promotion hopefuls from the level below to see if they can salvage their place in the division.

Saturday’s 24-45 home defeat to Old Alleynians leaves Maids precariously place as they look to rediscover some form in this pre-Christmas run against Hammersmith away on Saturday and derby rivals Bracknell at home the following week (Saturday, December 20). Their first match after the Christmas and New Year break is also a crucial away game at Camberley and Mobbs-Smith knows the results in these matches will almost certainly determine how the season plays out from here.

“This weekend is a massive game though at Hammersmith & Fulham,” said Mobbs-Smith.

“We’ve got three massive games now, whether home and away because of who we’re playing. One of them is Hammersmith & Fulham who are bottom of the table.

“A win is the only thing there you can take as a positive. Anything else and they're starting to catch us. If we can win there, we can put a big gap between ourselves and them.

“The following week is the pre-Christmas game against Bracknell. There’s the rivalry aspect to that and home advantage can sometimes be lost in that because of that rivalry. But the occasion is always big and it’s about which players rise to that occasion.

“After Christmas we start back up with another big bottom of the table clash at Camberley. The next three games are huge and the results we get will dictate the pressure we come under from January onwards.”

Mobbs-Smith admits Maids’ chances of escaping the bottom four don’t look great, however, he’s hoping they can grasp back some momentum with some positive performances and results in their upcoming matches. Were they to win all three, it could transform their aspirations this season. Last season, their form turned after securing a losing bonus point away to Wimbledon and Mobbs-Smith will be hoping history repeats itself after the club sneaked a bonus point in Saturday’s 45-24 home defeat to Old Alleynians.

“At the moment I’m not sure we can bridge the gap (to the top eight),” he said. “At the moment you’re thinking it’s probably two from the bottom getting relegated and the other two are playing in the relegation play-offs.

“If we don’t win any of those matches, we’re probably not going to bridge that gap, but if we win all three, then there’s a realistic chance we could catch that eighth team. That’s what we’re hoping for. That our season can turn. It happened last season when we managed to get a bonus point against Wimbledon, one of the top teams in the league. From that moment on our whole season changed. It changed the whole psyche. We need to grasp the momentum at Hammersmith.

“If I was coaching them (Hammersmith) I’d be saying the same thing. This is a do or die game. There’s three of us in ninth position really. It’s a do or die game for them and for us. Whenever we play a team that’s also in the bottom four, winning is like double points. We do have some injury issues that we’d rather not have though.

“We haven’t won either fixture at Hammersmith. Tight games but we haven’t won either of the matches we’ve played there. Hopefully we’ll turn that on its head this weekend. We could do with a bit of that (rub of the green). It’s a public park in Hammersmith; I don’t think they control the grass cutting. It’s one of those idiosyncrasies of rugby, they don’t have a clubhouse, so we must walk to a pub in the High Street to get ready. If Fulham are at home this weekend, then we’ll be sitting in a pub full of Fulham FC fans.”