Stalemate for Rebels and Harriers

A SUPERB last fifteen minutes failed to bring Slough three points after well over an hour of cagey, defensive football on Saturday. The Rebels, who have been fighting to prove themselves in the Conference, are currently suffering from a severely weakened squad and are using their resources to the full.

Jon Sissons has a hamstring injury, both Tommy Langley and Tony Dennis were unavailable, Gary Donnellan is still playing for Wealdstone as he searches for the right club, Robbie Johnson has a groin injury and Mark Turkington is waiting to hear whether he needs an operation on his achillies injury. The operation was described as probably: "A four week job", by the Rebels' boss Alan Davies.

In itself, the game wasn't particularly enthralling, little room given by either side and the pace of the Harriers seemed the only problem for Slough. "There wasn't a lot of sparkle in the first half," admitted Davies, "We did start brightly in the second though and deserved to get the three points in the last fifteen minutes. They were a difficult side and they don't give a lot” he said.

Tony Dell returned to the side after his suspension and had a fine game in the middle, with Barry Rake in a new role as striker alongside Neal Stanley. But the first half was dominated by the Kidderminster defence, they kept the Rebels pushed well back and their pace muzzled any firepower that Slough showed.

At the other end the visitors did manage to carve out a few opportunities, but Trevor Bunting was in superb form to deny both Attwood and Hadley, though Kidderminster never looked dangerous enough. A rare forage up into the Harriers box saw Tony Dell fire wide from a quickly taken free-kick and the half rapidly lost shape and direction with offsides and hearty defending holding sway.

The second period improved when both sides found some extra space to use. Slough started it well and found room on the left though the final ball was never dangerous enough. After going at Kidderminster from all angles and holding the midfield well, Slough began to lose momentum and the visitors gradually got back into the game.

Bunting again pulled off a fine save when flying to the far post to block Davies' efforts and the Harriers seemed to then settle into a period of long range efforts as they failed to break down a solid Slough rearguard.

But as the half wore on, Kidderminster, who had two tiring FA Cup games with Woking in the past week, seemed to slow up and the Rebels suddenly began to run amok. A neat move between Stanley and Phil Stacey saw the latter's shot well saved, then minutes later Barry Rake controlled a cross well, only to see his volley shoot over the bar.

Mallinson was finding more and more space to push into and with the Rebels getting behind the Kidderminster defence, a goal looked on the cards. The visitor's keeper, Paul Jones, did well to bravely deny Mallinson at his far post, but could only watch as the same player's miss-hit cross sailed over his head and inches wide from all of 35 yards.

Tony Knight was just out from connecting with. Steve Thompson's cross in the last minute but the referee brought proceedings to a halt with Slough firing on all cylinders.