Mark digs Rebels' Graves And Derek's a Payne, too!

Two goals by hotshot Mark Graves buried Slough to deny them the chance of going top of the Vauxhall Opel League on Saturday.

With leaders Windsor unemployed after their game at Basingstoke was postponed, the Rebels could have taken over from the Royalists had they won on the Middlesex gluepot.

But their inability to create clear-cut openings cost them dear, as in-form Hayes took the opportunity to stake their own championship claims, while inflicting the Rebels' first defeat in 10 games.

Alan Davies's men rarely looked like adding significantly to their goals tally of 28 in their run of success since the Windsor game on November 10- a fact that the Slough manager readily accepted.

"Over the last few weeks we've found scoring goals quite easy," he said. "But today we just didn't seem to be able to do it in the last third of the field. We knew it was going to be a difficult game - now we've got to jump straight back and look to get something from our next three games, all at home."

Gary Dodd was back from holiday and replaced flu victim Paul Waites in midfield, while Jimmy Jacobs returned after a seven game absence and came in at right-back for Dennis Powell, ruled out with a groin strain.

The Church Road pitch was heavily sanded around the centre circle and like most other surfaces at the moment, was heavy and hardly conducive to good football. Jimmy Brown missed a good chance to edge Slough in front in the 10th minute after Wanklyn's pass, but the league's top scorer seemed to be expecting an offside flag as he shot tamely into Hyde's arms.

Home skipper Reg Leather was left completely unmarked from Forde's corner, but the big centre-half headed wide.

And the Slough defenders were again conspicuous by their absence and went behind as a result after 22 minutes. Forde went past Jacobs on the Rebels right and the smallest man on the pitch, Derek Payne, had time to pick his spot, in the bottom left -hand corner of the visitors' net.

Payne, the ex-Burnham midfielder, continued to to be just that to the visitors and gave Keith White one of his harder games since his switch to left-back.

And the Slough captain went in the book when he was forced to handball to prevent Graves from having a clear run on goal. In a game in which neither side imposed any great pressure, Slough's final ball was invariably poor.

And when the Rebels did finally get into the danger area ,Brown and Wilson both went for Dennis's cross and the ball sailed over the bar as two heads proved far worse than one.

Just to underline it simply wasn't going to be Slough's day, they went further behind to an absolute fluke of a goal six minutes before the break. Payne went past Dodd to feed Graves whose cross clearly flew off the outside of his boot and floated over an astonished 'keeper Bunting to go in at the far post.

Graves was equally as astonished, as his faced showed when colleagues raced over to celebrate his fortuitous strike.

"What can you say about a goal like that?" said manager Davies. " You can blame the 'keeper up to a point, but the swirling wind was a big factor in that goal."

A pre-interval pullback was a necessity for the Rebels and in the 43rd minute it arrived, inevitably, from the boot of Jimmy Brown. Hayes conceded a corner after Stanley threatened. Wilson's flag-kick reached Dennis at the back of the box and Brown swept the ball home from close range for his 27th of the season.

Stanley squandered a clear opening to level soon after the restart, but missed the target when well-placed on the edge of the box. But after three or four shots were blocked, Graves touched in for his 25th league and cup goal of the campaign to keep him right on Brown's tail at the top of the scoring charts.

One still had the feeling that the Rebels' cause was far from lost- but they continued to struggle to piece their game together.

Wilson was more closely marshalled by Walton in the second half and with Dennis only occasionally being employed on the other flank, they never got behind the Hayes' defence in the last half hour.

Stanley had a shot blocked, Dodd put one wide and even "Chalky" White couldn't put a 20-yard free-kick on target.

They were all Slough's attempts to get back in the game, but Hayes were content with their advantage which takes them up to fifth in the table, and the game petered out tamely and early.