Battling Parkway Denied at the Death
Berkhamsted v Parkway | Match ReportPlymouth Parkway’s Southern Premier League South trip to Berkhamsted came under the shadow of mounting absences, with six first team players unavailable and manager Chris McPhee forced to name a makeshift bench of two youngsters and his own coaching staff.
Against that backdrop, Parkway might have feared the worst when they gifted the hosts an early advantage, Brad Wadkins punishing a loose moment of possession by hammering home off the crossbar in the 17th minute.
It was a setback that could have deflated an already stretched side, but Parkway’s character shone through. McPhee admitted it was a test of character more than anything else: “We’ve really been up against it the last 48 hours. We turned up with a thin squad and then go a goal down in the way we did, it could have been a moment to crumble. Instead, the players rallied. The effort, the work rate, the togetherness was fantastic.”
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That spirit came to life after the break. A small tactical adjustment gave Parkway fresh energy, and the reward arrived eight minutes into the half. Berkhamsted’s defence faltered under pressure and Cruis Nyadzayo seized his chance, lifting the ball over the keeper for his first goal in yellow. It was a moment that transformed not only the scoreline, but the player himself. “Once Cruis scored you saw a different player altogether,” McPhee explained. “The confidence flooded back. He was suddenly winning duels, running with an extra yard of pace, and causing real problems.”
Three minutes later, Parkway’s travelling fans were in raptures as on-loan winger Tylor Love-Holmes arrowed a stunning strike into the top corner from a tight angle. In the space of three minutes the match had turned, and McPhee felt his side were embodying everything they had set out to show. “We talked about outworking and outthinking the opposition because we knew with a threadbare eleven it was going to be tough. That spell showed the confidence and belief we want to build on.”
As the game entered its closing stages, Parkway’s patched-up XI fought for every ball, knowing there were no reinforcements waiting on the bench. The defence stood strong, but fatigue eventually told deep into stoppage time when a whipped cross was met by Charley Barker’s header to level the scores.
The late blow stung, but McPhee’s overriding emotion was pride: “Unfortunately we couldn’t quite see it out, but when you’ve got six key first team players missing any team will suffer. What the lads showed was resilience and intelligence. There are players today who haven’t played ninety minutes all season, yet they dug in. The dressing room is disappointed we didn’t win, and that tells you everything about their standards.”
Parkway’s 2-2 draw lifts them to 19th, still inside the drop zone but showing signs of progress after back-to-back battling performances. With two more away trips looming, to Wimborne on Tuesday night and Yate Town next Saturday, McPhee is hopeful of welcoming back key players and building on the positives. “We’ll have a few lads back available and that will strengthen us again,” he said. “If we take the confidence and belief from today into the next week, it can only bode well. The supporters who travelled saw a group that gave everything, and that’s the foundation we need going forward.”
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