Red Faced Rebels

After another disastrous away showing Slough Town slipped to their lowest league position in two seasons and face the very real threat of falling further once the sides below them have fulfilled their outstanding fixtures - it's definitely crisis time at the Wexham Park club.

To add to the growing concerns of beleaguered boss Les Briley, Slough now face the prospect of losing top scorer Morrys Scott for the next few fixtures. Scott who was missing on Saturday has two broken bones in his left wrist, the result of a clash with the Welling goalkeeper at Wexham Park last Tuesday.

It's doubtful the lanky Scot would have been a great help to Slough's cause at Merthyr as Town endured an horrific 20 minute spell that saw them go from 1-0 up to 4-1 down amid defensive chaos. Basic errors were made and punished as Slough fought in vain to break out of the downward spiral that at present has them plummeting fast towards the relegation zone.

The plusses on Saturday were few but Andy Sayer was one, he held the ball up superbly without any support while McKay gave a far more assured performance settling in at right back. Meanwhile Robbie Peters continued his impressive loan period at the club with a bright opening to the game setting up Stanley for a header that he should have at least got on target.

However there was no hint of the agony to come when Slough went ahead on 12 minutes. Peters curled in the corner to the near post where it took a deflection off Jones and flew past Wager in the home goal.

Unfortunately the goal only served to wake up the Welsh side who until then had done nothing. Former Telford striker Benbow shot just wide from 20 yards and was then booked for an over zealous tackle on Bunting which saw him limping for the remainder of the half.

On 21 minutes the hosts were level. Hazel failed to head clear from Williams' cross instead directing the ball straight to the feet of Merthyr player manager Robbie James and he volleyed past Bunting.

Merthyr gaining in confidence all the time tried their luck repeatedly from long range and Williams, Benbow and Tucker were all close as Slough struggled to clear their lines. Bunting then had to scramble across goal to keep out Coates' header from another Williams cross. Slough's respite however was all too brief. From the resulting flag kick Coates, one of the smallest men in the league rose above Hazel, who for some reason didn't jump and powered Merthyr in front.

Typically Briley refused to let his head drop and showed all his experience, timing his tackle perfectly to rob Coates as he looked for the third.

Moments later Briley again cut out another through ball but this time carelessly gave the ball away and as is traditional Slough conceded as a result of an error. Davies crossed to Ryan James and when his chip, having beaten Bunting came back off the post the unmarked Dyer was on hand to sidefoot the ball into the empty net.

A minute later Bunting could not hold Dyer's overhead kick and Benbow dragged the ball away from the covering defenders and placed his shot wide of the prone Bunting to make it 4-1.

Slough totally dominated the second half but failed to take the chances that came their way and thus spurned any chance of getting back into the game. Neal Stanley was the chief culprit, he alone missed four excellent opportunities.

A double substitution saw the disappointing Hazel and the disappointed Briley replaced by Paul Manning and Brett Smith but the game probably didn't look any better from the sidelines to the Slough boss and Merthyr were denied another goal by an offside flag before they did round the game off in the last minute when a mix up between Dowson and Bunting saw Coates nip in for his second of the game.

Normally a Welsh crowd would have been eager to get away to watch the big rugby international but this time they stayed hoping for another gift, had the referee's whistle not intervened it would surely have come.