Rebels fade away

For the first 20 minutes of this opening Servowarm Isthmian League, Premier Division match of the season at Wexham Park on Saturday, Slough Town looked set to take Barking apart, but then the Rebels lost their way and finally had to settle for a share of the honours.

It was not the perfect start to the new campaign for Terry Reardon's side but for a while it looked as though the Rebels were going to get the new season under way in convincing style. However, Slough failed to really capitalise on the boost of a fine goal from Mick Doherty after 13 minutes, and in the second half allowed a lively Barking side right back into the match.

After their disappointing pre-season form the Rebels looked a totally different side as they started Saturday's match with a new air of confidence, and quickly produced some sweet free-flowing football which had Barking under considerable pressure.

New signing from Wembley, Henry Pacquette, soon made his presence felt up front and he was involved in the build- up which brought Slough a glorious goal after just 13 minutes of the new season. Pacquette played the ball to Dylan Evans who laid off a beautiful pass to Mick Doherty, and the former Reading player accelerated past the Barking defence on the right to place the ball wide of the advancing Dave Root.

This was just the tonic Slough needed and it seemed only a matter of time before they would build on this lead, but the expected never materialised.. Despite some useful approach play, slowly the Rebels began to lose their way and the nearest they came in the half again to threatening the Barking goal was when Pacquette had a header saved by Root after a Francis Araguez cross.

The second half was a totally different story as the Rebels earlier midfield supremacy began to fade and it was Barking who took over the general running of the match. Slough's defence began to look far from happy when put under pressure and the warning signs were there that Barking were more than capable of getting themselves back into the game.

And, after 58 minutes that is exactly what happened when they scored a goal which from Slough's point of view was exceptionally sloppy. The Rebels seemed to totally lose their concentration as first they allowed Paul Shirt and Paul Armstrong to work a quick short corner on the left, and then the defence seemed rooted to the ground as the unmarked Bobby Tappin headed the resultant cross past Frank Parsons.

But Slough still had their chances to win this match and the best of them fell to Mick Doherty some seven minutes later. Keith White's cross was flicked on by Evans and with the Barking defence left admiring the crispness of Slough's build-up, Doherty came steaming through only to head the ball over the bar from some 12 yards out.

Gary Attrell replaced the hard-working Pacquette and the young striker almost immediately stamped his mark on the match. He swept past the Barking defence on the left and then saw his cross almost result in an own-goal, as Kevin Cooper cleared the ball only to see it hit the head of Edward Ashdown and rebound dangerously close to the goal.

In the dying seconds of injury time it looked for a moment as though the Rebels had salvaged a last ditch victory, but White's well stuck shot from about 20 yards just curled agonisingly wide of the post with Root well beaten.

Apart from not having the satisfaction of opening the season on a winning note two further black marks about the match for Slough were the bookings of Joe Maloney and Tony Doherty.