Reardon's Rebels are still flying high

It took Slough Town 55 minutes to break down a dour and resolute Bognor Regis Town side at Wexham Park on Tuesday evening, but once Alan Paris had achieved the vital breakthrough the Rebels' unbeaten Servowarm Isthmian League, Premier Division record never looked in danger.

Terry Reardon's young side are now unbeaten in their first nine league matches this season and proudly head the table, and while they may not be producing the sparkling style of football which heralded the start of their new campaign, more importantly they are still getting the right results.

It certainly was not a memorable Slough performance, although in the last 20 minutes they did produce some sweet attacking football which should have yielded more than the two goals they scored on a wet miserable evening.

However for the first 45 minutes the Rebels were quite literally awful. Their play lacked any kind of rhythm, elementary mistakes seemed the order of the day and they looked anything but a side currently flying high at the top of the table.

Without doubt it was the worst football served up at Wexham Park this season, and few chances were created by either side. After eight minutes a cross from Bognor's Malcolm Ball completely deceived Frank Parsons, and the Slough 'keeper was relieved when the ball struck the far post and bounced back into play.

At the other end Dave Russell and Eric Young both had chances to put the Rebels ahead, but generally the action was of a poor standard.

Speaking after the game Rebels manager Terry Reardon said; "We were awful in the first half, it was like a morgue out there and we certainly needed a change of attitude in the second half."

However Reardon also felt that Bognor's dour, negative defensively minded tactics did not help his sides game, and commented that he felt the Sussex side will certainly struggle this season unless they take a more positive attitude to matches. He added; " I was so frustrated by the first half that after the interval I was prepared to gamble and told the side to go forward at every possible opportunity."

And this is what Slough started to do and after Joe Moloney had a header cleared off the line by Steve Parslow, Paris achieved the breakthrough on 55 minutes. Eddie Hutchinson's throw-in was headed on by Dave Russell to Keith White, who turned the ball through for Paris who got in behind the Bognor defence and blasted home a shot from 12 yards out for a well worked goal.

This gave the Rebels just the boost they so desperately required, and they quickly settled down to produce some highly entertaining football. A superb run by Devon Petty on the left ended with Neil Hider just beating Paris to the eventual low cross, and then after 62 minutes Slough bagged their second goal.

Vaughan Powell's corner from the left was only headed out as far as White, and although from close range the Slough captain miss-hit his shot the ball went in at the far post, as it appeared to go under the body of Bognor goalkeeper Trevor Gilbert.

In the final 20 minutes Slough totally dominated the action and Dave Yerby, returning to the side in place of Francis Araguez at right back, caused Bognor all kinds of problems with some superb runs down the wing.

Dylan Evans, who again worked like a Trojan throughout, went close with a spectacular overhead effort and Yerby saw two well struck efforts run just wide of the target.

However Slough could not add to their lead, and although it was not a totally convincing display by Reardon's side, at the end of the day the result was again right.