White and Kiely strike to destroy Leatherhead

A superb diving header off the line to prevent a certain goal by John Beyer and some atrocious Leatherhead finishing helped Slough Town increase their lead to four points at the top of the Berger Isthmian League, Premier Division on Saturday.

During the first 45 minutes the match became a catalogue of missed chances by the Leatherhead forwards, as the Rebels struggled to find any rhythm or pattern to their play.

And then 14 minutes into the second half there was a dramatic turnabout when the Rebels scored two superbly executed goals in the space of a minute to extend their present unbeaten league run to seven matches. However, the Rebels can certainly thank the terrible finishing of their Leatherhead colleagues for returning from Surrey with three more vital points.

With Dave Yerby out with ‘flu, manager Laurie Churchill brought in Steve Norman at left back, while Vic Akers returned at right back and Keith White replaced the dropped Dave Russell.

An extremely bumpy pitch and some inconsistent refereeing made life difficult for both sides throughout. However, during the first half Slough looked anything like a side currently heading the division as struggling Leatherhead created a string of chances - only to be wasted by some amazing finishing once in front of goal.

After six minutes John Doyle put Terry Page clean through but his final effort went wide of the far post. With the Rebels defence looking decidedly uncomfortable, Roy Elcom then missed another golden opportunity after 24 minutes when he shot wide from close range. And Leatherhead's series of poor finishing continued when Doyle fired wide with only the advancing Richard Teale to beat following some uncertain play by Beyer and Norman.

With the Rebels' play at times reaching an all time low this season, Chris Kelly was the next culprit to waste a scoring chance after 35 minutes.

The turning point in the game probably came five minutes before the interval. A cross from the left was lost by Teale, under pressure, and Kelly pounced on the loose ball and shot for the top right hand corner.

From the moment the ball left the Leatherhead striker's foot it looked a certain goal. But, like a rocket being launched into orbit, Beyer flew across the goal and somehow managed to head the ball over the bar for a corner.

Even then the Surrey side had a further chance to go in leading at the interval. But first Teale foiled Page and then Kelly placed the rebound wide of an open goal.

However, the second half saw the Rebels start to play with slightly more confidence and after Kelly had wasted another possible chance, there was a dramatic turnaround in fortunes. After 59 minutes Eggie James won a challenge on the left which set White through. And the Rebels player provided the perfect finish calmly firing past Peter Caswell into the far corner.

And within a minute Slough had scored a superbly executed second goal. Barry Friend combined well with James and the latter’s final pass split the Leatherhead defence for Kiely to slot the ball past the advancing Caswell.

So Leatherhead had been made to pay for their series of missed chances - and on this performance it is easy to see why they have scored only 23 league goals this season.

The only black mark for the Rebels, although despite winning they cannot be pleased with this performance, was another booking for Kiely after 75 minutes.