White dazzles Avenue

After all the frustrating performances of late this was the afternoon that Slough Town finally came good again as they slammed seven glorious goals past Walthamstow Avenue to move right back into the Servowarm Isthmian League, Premier Division title race at Wexham Park on Saturday.

The Rebels showed more than just glimpses of the marvellous form that saw them emerge as title favourites earlier in the season, especially in the first 20 minutes when they scored three times and with some superb football left struggling Walthamstow dead and buried.

And the chief architect behind this performance was Slough skipper Keith White, who had a quite outstanding match.

Playing in a more forward role he made five of the seven goals and scored one himself and, with Rowan Dodds helping himself to a hat-trick the fans were given a feast of goals to savour.

From the word go Slough just seemed to click and with the midfield, in which Simon Delahunty worked extremely hard, quickly seizing control of affairs and Dodds and Gary Attrell like lightning up front Walthamstow never really stood a chance.

And so from the fifth minute the goals started to flow and they came like this;

5 minutes; After White had put Attrell through and his shot had been well saved by Mark Hughes, from the resultant corner Dodds headed home Vaughan Powell's cross. 1-0
14 minutes; A superb through ball from White split the Avenue defence and Attrell nipped in between Hughes and Kevin Dare to score a well taken goal. 2-0
17 minutes; Again White was the architect as another marvellous through ball opened up the Walthamstow defence and Dodds ran on to slam the ball past the luckless Hughes. 3-0
23 minutes; A rare moment of indecision by the Slough defence let Alan Hunter in and after Frank Parsons had saved his first effort the hard working Avenue striker followed up to force the rebound home. 3-1
60 minutes; A cross from Powell found White and after he had sweetly turned and then seen his shot saved by Hughes, Dodds was on hand to knock the loose ball home and complete his hat-trick and take his season's tally to 19. 4-1
70 minutes; Delahunty sent Attrell clear and after he had chipped the ball over Hughes, Phil Stacey prevented a certain goal by punching the ball off the line. But Slough were not to be denied and from the resultant penalty Eddie Hutchinson made no mistake. 5-1
71 minutes; This time it was Walthamstow's turn to score when after Jimmy Kane's cross had beaten the Slough defence Dare was at the far post to crack the ball past Parsons. 5-2
75 minutes; Slough's sixth goal and once again that man White was in the thick of the action. Hutchinson's cross was headed goalwards by White and then struck Kevin Hill on the head and, much to the little midfield player's surprise he had scored his first goal for the club. 6-2
85 minutes; And at last White's efforts were rewarded when he sent crashing home one of his blockbusting left foot shots from a free kick some 20 yards out. 7-2.

So seven marvellous goals and the kind of form that became a trademark of Slough's early season form - and there could have been more. Attrell had one effort kicked off the line; another ruled out for offside and was then only denied by a brilliant save from Hughes.

All in all a very satisfactory day for Terry Reardon as with the top two sides - Wycombe Wanderers and Sutton United - both losing the Rebels jumped back into the championship race, moved up into fourth spot, hit seven goals for the second time this season and collected a £50 bonus for winning by more than three clear goals.