Turkington Sets Up Rebels Win

Slough turned in one of their best performances at home for some time in the first half of this tricky tie with Barrow. But they only had a Mark Turkington thunderbolt to show for it when they should have won more convincingly.

After early season solidity the side was again changing around with injury problems. Phil Burns and Steve Thompson both missed out with injury, Francis Joseph played for Barnet and new £8,000 signing Steve Whitby started on the bench.

Mark Mallinson retained the left back slot with Allan Pluckrose moving into midfield from full back where he excels. Gary Donnellan made a welcome return to the midfield with Mark Hill sitting it out on the bench.

Slough had a very tricky start when as soon as they had kicked off the rain streaked down combined with a strong wind which blew in Barrow's favour. After weathering this storm which soon died out, Slough began to get on top and at times played some excellent football.

Behind all this was Mark Turkington who had an outstanding game in the centre of midfield and his distribution was excellent. The Rebels first chance came when Paul McKinnon won the ball off a Barrow defender and set up Colin Fielder, whose finish was straight at Peter McDonnell in the Barrow goal and saved.

The Rebels kept motoring forward. Pluckrose added good width on the left and overlapped dangerously and Gary Donnellan added bite on the right, with the Slough defence pushing up and the midfield finding time to spray the ball around. It looked only a matter of time before Slough would score but Barrow posed a threat when they pumped the ball forward though the combination of the pacy Tony Knight and Darren Anderson, whose form has been a revelation of late, was up to the challenge.

With 31 minutes on the clock came the opening that Slough wanted. Donellan's superb cross from the right picked out McKinnon at the far post and he nodded into Neal Stanley's path. Stanley then flicked into the path of the unmarked Turkington whose finish was too strong for the Barrow keeper who ended up in the back of the net with the ball.

Slough looked to build on their lead with a strong showing as the half progressed and a fine pass from Turkington sent Stanley through and his far post cross was volleyed across goal and inches wide by Donnellan.

As the half went on though, Slough got immersed under late pressure from set pieces from Barrow but failed to be tested. With Thompson missing, Slough failed to have the cutting edge when moving forward and it showed in the second period.

Barrow came out and packed their defence and slowed the game down to their pace. With six minutes gone a mix up between Mallinson and Anderson resulted in a poor back pass almost seized upon by Mike Brown but the ball was cleared.

Barrow was getting on top and began to dominate with Slough not moving forward well and losing all first half momentum. Brown volleyed just over from a dangerous move and then Mallinson sold himself and Wigley nipped in to see his powerful shot well saved by Bunting.

Slough were lightweight upfront. McKinnon led well but is now in desperate need of a goal and Stanley was always on the edge of the game. The Rebels failed to carve out a single good chance in the second half as Barrow made them work for their win, but dominated from a well organised defence.