Royalists Rampage!

Marauding Windsor strikers took no prisoners at Stag Meadow on Tuesday night, as they rampaged through the enemy camp leaving the Rebels for dead.

And while Slough slink off to lick their wounds, the Monarchs celebrate one of their finest local derby wins for years.

The Windsor hitmen found the target more often in the first 45 minutes of this Vauxhall-Opel League clash than they had in the previous 450 minutes of play this season. Gary Attrell, Dean Woodley and Des McMahon put their names on the Windsor score sheet for the first time, as the cheers from the newly adopted cheerleaders ran aground the 757 crowd.

Jeff Bateman was the last link in the Slough defense as early as the third minute when he blocked a goal-bound header from Windsor's Ian Richards standing in for the injured Richard North. Slough hit back via Devon Petty, when he got to the Windsor dead-ball line and sold a dazzling dummy to his two Windsor markers only to see his cross headed over the woodwork by Jimmy Brown.

Windsor broke the deadlock in the 24th minute when Dean Woodley, sparkling in front of his old team-mates played a one-two with Mark Franks on the left wing and crossed into the box. Mark Davis and Gartrell had moved up but while the cross was too high for Davis, Attrell poached a volley under ex-Royalist defender Gary Woodcraft’s nose and Cox could do nothing to keep the shot out.

An end-to-end move minutes later looked set to give Windsor their second when Kevin Mitchell goal kick touched on by Mark Davis set Woodley off, but Cox managed to parry his shot. So Windsor had to wait until the 37th minute for their second shocker. Again. Attrell the Davis-Woodley partnership proved fatal to the Rebels, as Mark Davis cross from the left was driven back in from the far post by Attrell and Woodley drove it into the Slough net.

Appropriately, it was team captain Des McMahon who capped the evening with a blistering shot on the stroke of half-time. Confidence was buzzing round the Royalists' campus McMahon caught and controlled a waist-high cross driven in by Attrell on the right. From outside the penalty area, McMahon smashed Ashot on the Rebels goal which Cox could reach but not stop.

Former Royalist full-back John Mitchell was replaced by Tony Knight at half-time, but Slough seemed over-awed by the task in front of them when they limped out for the second half. Floyd Dennis proved himself a match for any Rebel with one of his strongest performances yet but when Rowan Dodds did get in a volleyed shot, 'keeper Kevin Mitchell pulled a reaction split-second save out of the bag to deny him.

Slough salvaged some respect in the 79th minute when Devon Petty bundled through the Windsor defence to face Kevin Mitchell but his shot only went in off Royalists' fullback Stuart Mitchell after the ‘keeper had parried Petty's shot.

Slough threw everything at the Windsor goal in the last minutes, but the previously suspect defence rose to the occasion to match the performance of their strikers. Last season's three meetings between the Royalists and the Rebels also saw 3-1 wins (twice) and a scoreless Boxing Day clash, so Tuesday's game followed the trend but certainly not early season form!