Five Goal Rebels In A Game Of Two Halves

It's a topsy-turvy world being Slough Town manager. And Dave Russell must be feeling particularly giddy this week, as he watched his Rebels side throw away a comfortable five - nil halftime lead on Saturday.

The old footballing cliche "a game of two halves" certainly applied at Wexham Park, as Trevor Baron's eight-minute hat-trick left Slough in a potentially record-breaking position. It was all to fall flat, though, in a dismal second 45 for the Rebels.

Russell made a number of important changes to his side, dropping the temperamental Bushay and replacing him with the impressive Stone, while also bringing in John Richardson for Daniel Nwaokolo and giving a debut to young Matthew Wojtowicz in place of the suspended Andy Clement.

Andy Sayer sprung the offside trap on six minutes but slipped up in the wet conditions when clean through on goal. The wet allowed Hippolyte through a couple of minutes later in a worrying moment, but Slough were in basic control and underlined their superiority on 10 minutes, as Richardon's killer cross was given a high quality finish by Stone, a perfect way to push his case for regular selection.

Early leads have been something of a Slough trademark this season, as has relinquishing them, and sloppy back-passes today threatened to do just that. A Cordery free-kick on 15 minutes following a needless Bateman handball was a close call.

Yeading, though, were nothing special, and Slough were prepared to be patient upfront, although the over-packed defence caused a little concern.

There was no real reason to worry, however, as on 28 minutes, a freak goal added to the Rebels' lead. West pressurised goalkeeper MacKenzie into gifting the ball to John Richardson, who delicately scored into the empty net from an acute angle. When another maiden goal scorer, Trevor Baron, tapped home a third on the half-hour, the Purfleet defeat was avenged.

Still there was more. Sayer's precocious Pele lob could so easily have floated in. Baron was on hand again on 36 minutes to head home unchallenged from a corner to prompt unparalleled celebrations. Defensive weaknesses had aided all four goals, but none the less, the Rebels were in top gear, and Baron repeated his trick on 38 minutes for an astounding eight-minute hat-trick, the climax of a frantic and passionate effort by Slough.

Yeading looked shattered by five sucker punches, and the rain-soaked Town supporters demanded, nay expected, more.

Slough came out in the second-half in no mood to compromise, but found themselves hit by what they assumed would be a consolation goal from Johnson Hippolyte, who fired home as some footballing fairy sprinkled sleepy-dust in the Slough defenders' eyes, causing them to miss the number nine completely.

Complacency seemed to be the name of the game early in the second-half, as the Rebels were content with their lot and wallowed in self-congratulation. To be fair to Slough, the superb Andy Sayer, celebrating his 100th game in a gold shirt, was very ably contained by Yeading's Korean international Kyung Hoon Park, cutting off a vital goal-poacher. Yeading, however, were beginning to sense a chink of light and again forced Bunting into a good save on 64 minutes.

Catlin and West both lifted the flagging momentum a little, but the defence was far too lax. A free-kick from former-Rebel McKinnon flitted past the post, striking an unfortunate young fan.

Sayer certainly should have bagged the sixth on 74 minutes, as Stone found him unmarked from six yards to miss dismally. It was Yeading, however, who looked the livelier, and they added a second on 79 minutes through McGrath, set up by McKinnon.

Baron then turned villain in the 84th minute, bringing down Steve Graham on the edge of the area. Woods converted the penalty with ease.

What should have been a simple victory, then, turned into, on paper, a scrappy win.

Consistency is obviously not going to be the hallmark of the Rebels this season. But with championship hopefuls Sutton United visiting on Saturday, fans will be expecting a much more professional attitude from their amateur heroes.