Stafford Rangers
3
Merchant (2), Collymore (7, 30)
Slough Town
4
Sissons (39, 57), Hill (50), Thompson (69)
League
Attendance: 1037
John Sissons
A magnificent recovery set the stage for Slough's most astonishing and overwhelming Conference victory since their promotion —in a seven goal feast of football.
A test of character and guts saw the Rebels through with flying colours as they came back from a 3-0 deficit to take all the points. Sloppy defending had them in trouble after only half an hour — a situation they didn't deserve — but just as a thrashing looked on the cards, Slough surged back.
Jon Sissons led the fightback with two well taken goals and Slough motored home with a fine second half display. Boss Alan Davies said: "We started off defending like schoolboys and were punished, but the difference was that they had two chances early on and scored while we had four and didn't."
"We always thought we had a chance though, and you have to hold your hands up to the players," he added.
Injuries ruled out Tony Dennis and Mark Turkington and Tony Dell was suspended, but in form Jon Sissons replaced Tommy Langley up front with Langley occupying the bench. Disaster looked to have set in when Shaun Merchant gave Rangers the lead after two minutes and Collymore added another five minutes later. Collymore hit Stafford's third on the half hour with a goal that Davies described as: "The sort of thing that keep people in football grounds."
An incredible curling 35 yard effort that sailed over the stranded Bunting. But while all this was happening. Slough were carving out chance after, chance and not finding the net.
Stafford's poor defence shook as Gary Donnellan, Tony Knight and Mark Mallinson all had golden opportunities, and soon after Sissons hit the post.
Six minutes before the break the Rebels were on their way when a superb turn on Donnellan's cross allowed Sissons to fire home.
On 50 minutes, Sissons picked up a booking after a fracas on the edge of the box from which Mark Hill’s resultant free kick curled home to reduce the arrears further.
Slough were rampant and Stafford could offer no resistance as they surged forward, and with 57 minutes gone, Sissons got on the end of Bunting's drop kick to lob the ball home for an equaliser.
Darren Anderson replaced the hobbling Pratt and as Stafford tried to push forward, the rearguard was superbly tuned to deal with any threat that they offered.
With 21 minutes to go the Rebels took the lead. fine work from Mallinson setting up Steve Thompson, who weaved through and fired home a fine goal.
Stafford reduced their defence and decided to attack in numbers, but totally the opposite to the opening minutes, Slough were virtually impregnable.
The only time when Stafford got through, Bunting was equal to a tremendous save which foiled Merchant from point blank range and after six minutes injury time and hard defending, three points were spectacularly secured.
A test of character and guts saw the Rebels through with flying colours as they came back from a 3-0 deficit to take all the points. Sloppy defending had them in trouble after only half an hour — a situation they didn't deserve — but just as a thrashing looked on the cards, Slough surged back.
Jon Sissons led the fightback with two well taken goals and Slough motored home with a fine second half display. Boss Alan Davies said: "We started off defending like schoolboys and were punished, but the difference was that they had two chances early on and scored while we had four and didn't."
"We always thought we had a chance though, and you have to hold your hands up to the players," he added.
Injuries ruled out Tony Dennis and Mark Turkington and Tony Dell was suspended, but in form Jon Sissons replaced Tommy Langley up front with Langley occupying the bench. Disaster looked to have set in when Shaun Merchant gave Rangers the lead after two minutes and Collymore added another five minutes later. Collymore hit Stafford's third on the half hour with a goal that Davies described as: "The sort of thing that keep people in football grounds."
An incredible curling 35 yard effort that sailed over the stranded Bunting. But while all this was happening. Slough were carving out chance after, chance and not finding the net.
Stafford's poor defence shook as Gary Donnellan, Tony Knight and Mark Mallinson all had golden opportunities, and soon after Sissons hit the post.
Six minutes before the break the Rebels were on their way when a superb turn on Donnellan's cross allowed Sissons to fire home.
On 50 minutes, Sissons picked up a booking after a fracas on the edge of the box from which Mark Hill’s resultant free kick curled home to reduce the arrears further.
Slough were rampant and Stafford could offer no resistance as they surged forward, and with 57 minutes gone, Sissons got on the end of Bunting's drop kick to lob the ball home for an equaliser.
Darren Anderson replaced the hobbling Pratt and as Stafford tried to push forward, the rearguard was superbly tuned to deal with any threat that they offered.
With 21 minutes to go the Rebels took the lead. fine work from Mallinson setting up Steve Thompson, who weaved through and fired home a fine goal.
Stafford reduced their defence and decided to attack in numbers, but totally the opposite to the opening minutes, Slough were virtually impregnable.
The only time when Stafford got through, Bunting was equal to a tremendous save which foiled Merchant from point blank range and after six minutes injury time and hard defending, three points were spectacularly secured.
Slough Town Lineup
- 1 Trevor Bunting
- 2 Trevor How
- 3 Mark Hill
- 4 Tony Knight
- 5 Vernon Pratt 14
- 6 Mark Mallinson
- 7 Gary Donnellan
- 8 Neal Stanley
- 9 John Sissons
- 10 Steve Thompson
- 11 Phil Stacey
Substitutes
- 12 Tommy Langley
- 14 Darren Anderson 5