Rebels Red Devils

Slough had Farnborough seeing red as they completed their season with their second win over the Hampshire side in five days.

The day started badly for the Rebels when they arrived at Cherrywood Avenue to find that two of their white second choice shirts had gone missing. With Farnborough wearing yellow, Slough had to trot out in a set of borrowed red shirts.

But Slough looked as though they would have been quite happy to wear sky blue pink as they strengthened their claim for the £1,350 prize money for third place in the Vauxhall Opel League.

It needed a Jimmy Brown penalty his fourth goal in the two games against Farnborough to secure the points on Saturday, but they were fully deserved after Slough's commanding performance.

Manager Alan Davies said: "In the second half we could have had three or four goals, but I can't remember them having a clear cut chance. “

Of his team's double over a side who were among the early season pacesetters, Davies remarked: "They were two hard games and it says a lot for the team that we were able to do a double.”

Victory ensured Slough of at least fourth place, which became third when Bognor slipped up in midweek. Davies said: "We can't finish lower than fourth and I think the team deserve that. “

Farnborough had the better of the early exchanges with a Mark Turkington corner clipping the bar and the dangerous Simon Read firing into the side netting. Jeff Bateman uncharacteristically left a header short of 'keeper Trevor Bunting, who just managed to beat Read to the ball, but after 24 minutes Slough went in front.

Paul Waites pushed the ball forward for Brown, took a return pass as he skipped into the box and was hauled down by 'keeper Grant Lunn as he stepped past him. Brown placed the penalty wide of Lunn's left hand for his 29th goal of the season.

Slough never looked in a serious danger of losing that lead with Tony Knight and Gary Woodcraft sound at the back and skipper Keith White busy in midfield. When Jimmy Bolton pounced on a good through ball from Dennis Bailey, Bunting proved equal to the task by tipping Bolton's first time shot over the bar.

Devon Petty almost increased the Slough lead four minutes into the second half, but couldn't quite force the ball past Lunn from a narrow angle after being presented with it by defender Robin Gosnell. From the corner that resulted Bateman beat Lunn in the air to head against the post and two minutes later Jimmy Jacobs tested Lunn with a 20 yard volley. Waites drove over from 12 yards before Farnborough eventually broke out and got the ball to top scorer Bolton, who lashed the ball against the post from just inside the area.

Slough’s battling ensured there were no more major scares and they had the last chance of the match when White timed his run to meet a Waites chip with a header that flew too high.

Match Stats:
Corners: Farnborough 6, Slough 6.
Attempts on target-off target-blocked: Farnborough 2-7-1, Slough 4-7-1.
Slough attempts: Brown 1-1-0, Jacobs 1-1-0, Davis 1-1-0, Petty 1-0-0, White 0-2-0, Bateman 0-1-0, Waites 0-1-0, Woodcraft 0-0-1.