Micky Kiely's Back

Micky Kiely is back and it took one of Wexham Park's favourite sons just 32 minutes on Wednesday evening to start scoring goals for Slough Town again.

Kiely, the star marksman of Slough's 1981 championship winning side became a Rebel again on Monday evening when manager Howard Kennedy signed him from Hayes been for almost three seasons.

Where he has And Kiely a prolific scorer in his Wexham Park days certainly did the business on Wednesday night with a gem of a goal to put Slough back on the victory trail.

However at the end of another entertaining game it was Colin Tate who stole the show with the two second half goals which finally sunk Billericay Town in this Servowarm Isthmian League, Premier Division clash.

But the introduction of Kiely certainly lifted Slough. He opened the scoring with a real beauty, went desperately close minutes later and then missed a "sitter" in the second half.

That apart he also added some much needed fire power to the Rebels attack and in partnership with Tate and Rowan Dodds gave the Billericay defence a testing evening's work.

“It couldn't be better for the lad, he comes back and scores a super goal," said boss Kennedy about Kiely's return. "He was keen and eager and kept the Billericay back four on their toes throughout."

However Slough fans will now have to wait another week before they can savour the prospect of some more Kiely goals. Part of the agreement of Kiely joining Slough from
Hayes was that he would not play in the clash between the two sides at Wexham Park tomorrow (Saturday).

As Kiely was not under contract with Hayes, who he joined from Slough in 1982, there was no fee involved. After two heavy defeats it was essential that Slough bounced back against Billericay.

And once again the match became a question of whether the Rebels could score enough goals to wipe out those their porous defense were likely to concede.

Both sides had early chances with Dave Alexander missing a golden one for the Rebels and then Les Currell did well to foil Keith Pope as he scampered through the Slough defence.

And then after 32 minutes Kiely struck. It was a superbly contrived goal with sweeping passes from Keith White and Alexander creating the danger before Dodds set up Kiely to strike home a perfect right foot shot past Wayne Franklin from some 20 yards.

However these days Slough like to give the opposition a chance and three minutes later they let Billericay right back in. Danger always threatened when finally Eddie Hutchinson's clearance rebounded off Paul Wilson into the path of John Felton and he put the ball cooly past Currell

Tate then saw a header scrambled off the line and another sweetly struck Kiely shot brought a tumbling save out of the agile Franklin.

The second half became the Tate show as the Slough striker took his season's tally to 14 with two cooly taken goals. On 50 minutes Tate struck for the first time rising majestically to head home White's corner despite some frantic efforts on the Billericay line to clear the ball.

But Billericay always looked dangerous with some sweeping breaks and from one such move Currell produced a timely save to foil substitute Chris Maycock.

Slough then got the jitters in front of goal with Dave Russell missing a golden chance from five yards and then after splendid work by Dodds on the right Kiely, contrived to hit the post with an open goal at his mercy.

It was left to Tate, however, to show everyone how it should be done when in the 89th minute he converted an Alexander cross with that man Dodds once again at the heart of the move which created the goal.

Even then Slough decided to "give away" another stupid goal as in the 92nd minute the defence got totally exposed by a quick break and when Steve Legge crossed, Felton was able to prod home his second goal of the evening for Billericay.

“The main thing tonight was that we got three points and matched Billericay physically," said Kennedy. He continued: "But we just can't keep giving goals away like we did again tonight. “The whole team improved on Saturday's performance but playing like that will not win Slough Town anything next season and we are only interested in winning something. “However it was a big improvement on Saturday and once again the effort and commitment was there.“

Kennedy had hoped to make another major signing this week but the deal fell through and with the transfer deadline on Monday he will now stick with his current squad for the rest of the season.

Devon Petty who had 'flu on Wednesday will almost certainly return for Kiely against Hayes while defender Peter Skerritt could soon be having a minor operation to cure the knee injury which has kept him out for almost all this season.