Gray Day For Rebels

Slough slipped to another league defeat with a very disappointing performance against a newly promoted Grays Athletic side, who before Saturday only had one win all season.

Although the first half turned out to be dominated by Grays, the Rebels started the first 5 minutes as the strongest side. No shots on goal this period, but Slough produced some good football.
But after just seven minutes Grays took the lead. The lively Danny Hayzelden picked up the ball on the left. He skipped past Rainford and McDonald with ease. His cross from the left picked out Dominic Gentle, who could not fail to score from four yards.

Just two minutes later Hayzelden picked up the ball again. He skipped past Rainford, who looked uncomfortable in his right back position and this time drilled a right footed shot which was stopped low down to his right by Honey.

At this point there was only one side in the match - Grays. Slough were all over the place in every department. You could tell that the early Grays strike had dented the Rebels confidence.
Grays had another close effort on 15 minutes when Feddis won a tackle in midfield. He ran at the Slough defence and was invited to shoot with no Slough defender going to the ball, but luckily his shot went inches past the post.

Soon after efforts came from Hazle, Blaney and Wallace, who somehow managed to miss from eight yards with Honey stranded, but luckily none of the Grays players could take their chances.
Five minutes before the break Grays could have taken a two-goal lead. A corner in from the left fell on the head of Wallace. His header hit the bar and some spectators thought the ball hit the top of the net and come back out, but no goal was given.

Changes needed to be made the second half and changes were made. The Rebels introduced Dwight Marshall and Dave Timothy for the ineffective Steve Black and Andrew Deaner. This saw Dave Rainford move to his preferred position Central midfield. With Timothy on the right, up against the speedy Hayzelden and Marshall in a straight swap for Deaner. Now the Rebels had a much better shape to the side.

Another change saw McDonald and Holsgrove swap positions and McDonald looked more comfortable in central midfield. The Rebels had their first serious attack when Marshall and Coombs linked up well, but Coombs goalbound shot was deflected for a corner. But Grays were soon back on the attack, and their very effective former Billericay winger Steve Blaney had a shot which went inches past Honey's right hand post.

In this half the game was much more even, but there were not that many efforts on goal by each side. Holsgrove did have a good effort on 66 minutes though when he saw his half volley from the edge of the area, tipped over the bar by Desborough, the first time the Grays keeper had been called into action.

With ten minutes left Slough pushed Leon Townley up front and his aerial ability caused Grays problems. From his header a ball fell to Keith McPherson in the area, but McPherson's effort was deflected just wide. In the last minute of the game, Slough almost stole an undeserved point. Archer played in a free kick which was flicked on to Townley, who saw his left footed volley stopped by Desborough with his legs and diverted the ball for a corner.