Solid Form Continues As Yeovil Beaten

Slough consolidated their GM Vauxhall Conference position with their eighth victory of the season, a rugged 2-0 win over Yeovil at Wexham Park on Saturday.Goals from Neal Stanley and Trevor How were the highlight of another fiery encounter against a side who have not won in the league since October 13 and struggling after the sacking of manager Brian Hall seven weeks ago.

The Rebels have conceded defeat only once, to Macclesfield, in nine games during the same period and now approach the half way stage of the season in the top half of the table.The Glovers, who like Wycombe Wanderers have moved into a new multimillion pound stadium at the start of the season, came armed with a battery of Exeter players who have accompanied the appointment of former City coach Clive Whitehead as manager at Huish.

But clearly the side is at present unable to benefit from what looks on paper to be the perfect combination - and personality clashes behind the scenes still continue to sour the atmosphere. The Rebels ran innocently into a bitter and brutal battleground of resentment and disillusion which resulted on pitch in three bookings, one for Steve Thompson for retaliation in the 20th minute.

But this turned out to be the only reaction to ruthless provocation — in every other way the Rebels just got on with the game. There were chances at both ends in the hectic opening exchanges, Joe Jackson hacking off the line from Thompson and Howard Pritchard making a mess of an open goal opportunity after he beat Trevor Bunting following a midfield interception.

Robbie Carroll had another go at putting the Glovers ahead in the 13th when he made space on the edge of the box but found Bunting well-positioned to stop his 18-yard drive. The Rebels took the lead two minutes later, a ball cleared out of defence finding Darren Anderson who headed powerfully towards the far post where Stanley made room to toe home.

Slough strengthened their grip on the game from this point, Anderson, Mark Hill and Tony Knight looking unassailable at the back while aggressive midfielders Gary Donnellan and Tony Dell sewed up the middle of the park.

It was left to Sissons and Stanley to keep the Glovers defence at panic stations. Stanley almost got a second in the 26th minute, chasing onto a fine through ball from Dell and standing up well to a challenge before putting his chip over keeper David Fry just wide of the mark.
Tiv Lowe then made a hasty clearance from a deadly low Sissons cross but the Glovers should have done much better from two good positions — the first when their Welsh international signing Nigel Stephenson screwed criminally off target in the 36th and the second when Carroll and Pritchard got into a muddle inside the box.

The Rebels came out like men possessed for the second half, winning the challenge for every 50-50 ball and taking their tally of corners to 13 to Yeovil's two.A lively Sissons snapshot for the right caught Fry by surprise but his persistence paid when after a series of set pieces he tricked his was past the defence in the 58th and sent in a cross which skipper How directed inside the near post having pushed up into the attack.

Miguel De Souza had looked half-hearted when put through by Jackson and pulled his effort wide and Bunting was only troubled once during the half, sprawling to save at Carroll's feet.

The Rebels were unlucky not to get more for their work as they strung together some dainty passes which allowed both Sissons and Thompson to turn up the heat. Richard Cooper was booked for a late tackle on Donnellan Clearly all the Rebels are keen to keep their places in the side and competition is getting fierce.

Striker Tommy Langley had to sit it out on the sub's bench for the whole 90 minutes though crowd favourite Barry Rake was given a short run out when manager Alan Davies pulled Thompson off in the 85th minute.