Les leaves alone but formula fails

Those who expected a change of tactics along with the change of manager were to he disappointed. Despite an improved away performance Slough still lacked the impetus to actually take all the points on their travels.

There were pluses, the fast improving Quamina again impressed while Alan Dowson showed the class which will surely attract scouts to Wexham Park in the near future.

In scrappy early exchanges, littered with free kicks, both sides struggled to get the ball down to play along the floor but Altrincham probed the Rebels' defence by pumping long balls into gaps behind both full backs though unable to build as Fiore and Hancock coped well.

Fiore used this as his spur to get forward, playing a neat one two with Hazel on halfway, he set off down the left wing beat Ogley and cracked over a low cross which was met by Haul on the near post but Clark in the Robins goal coped easily with the half-hit strike.

Carmody, Altrincham's most outstanding player, was marshalling midfield very well and struck one of several efforts from the edge of the box just over.

Indeed it was a strike from the edge of box which opened the scoring, Heyde took Carmody's pass in his stride raced to the byline and pulled the ball back for Smith who totally missed his kick only for the ball to run to Andrew Strange who thumped the ball past Bunting into the roof of the net from 20 yards.

Moments later another Carmody through ball was headed down by Harris but Bunting saved well with his fee from Woodhead's powerful drive.

At the other end Steve Scott fired a snap shot just wide after fine work by Quamina.

After the interval Les Briley's half time words to the team seemed to have been heeded with Stanley and Morrys Scott holding the ball up quite effectively, but Slough's usual slick passing game suffered on a very bumpy pitch and they found it hard to build on the extra possession they were enjoying.

Hancock's long throws were proving troublesome for the home defence and when Stanley turned one on after an hour Morrys Scott headed just over.

The game began to open up now and both sides tried to exploit the extra space, Stanley though he had done so placing the bah in the bottom right corner only for the effort to be ruled out for offside.

This was the Rebels' best period and a pin-point cross by Quamina, saw Morrys Scott head powerfully downwards, keeper Clark could only parry the ball towards goal and France had to complete the clearance.

While Slough searched far the equaliser Altrincham looked content to absorb the pressure and hit on the break which on 78 minutes proved to be a game winning strategy.

Slough by this time had changed from a 5-3-2 formation to the more commonly used 4-3-3 with Sayer replacing Hancock and Lee moving to full back.

Slough pushed men forward but as an attack broke down the ball was cleared to Woodhead who was brought down by Lee on the touchline. From the free kick Harris headed back across goal with Bunting stranded and French bundled the ball home.