Rebels survival hopes boosted with win

Slough Town continued with their impressive form with an encouraging display against fellow relegation rivals Carshalton Athletic.

Slough started brightly and had the ball in the back of the net after Paul Coombs bundled the ball into the back of the net, but was ruled out for a foul somewhere in the goalmouth scramble with only three minutes on the clock.

Paul Barrowcliff had two chances to get his name on the scoresheet, but was denied by a mixture of good defending and poor finishing. His first opportunity came as a short Rainford free kick was fed into the path of the midfielders run, but his effort was well blocked as he got into the box.

Shortly after, some good work down the right wing gave Wilkinson some space whose floated ball to the back post found the head of Barrowcliff, but he could not direct his header on target.

Young striker Derek Asamoah, the Rebels' two goal hero from Tuesday night, got onto the end of a right wing Leon Townley cross, but his headed effort went narrowly wide, with Borg covering the shot well.

Carshalton's first chance of the game came after twenty nine minutes when they enjoyed a good spell of possession, before Neil Robson shot from distance but it went comfortably wide of Mautone's goal.

Ten minutes later, Asamoah was released down the left wing. An early pass into Barrowcliff, who then squared the ball into the run of Wilkinson, but the midfielder snatched at the effort and it went comfortably wide.

The last incident of the half came when Asamoah managed to dribble past two defenders before Carshalton defender Matt Elverson's trailing leg caught Asamoah, and as the last man, the referee sent the highly rated Robins defender off.

Again, Slough started the half brightly with Asamoah and Rainford both creating chances, but neither was able to test Borg in the Carshalton goal. Carshalton's ten men were still looking lively on the break and they took a surprise lead after 54 minutes.

Fowler, impressive throughout the game, got past two defenders, then round Mautone where his first touch fell kindly got De Boer, who was able to simply tap into an unguarded net for a simple finish.

Slough picked themselves up and raised their game in an attempt to get back on level terms. Carshalton, and Fowler in particular, were still looking dangerous on the counter attack, and it was Fowler who had the next chance of the game. The striker broke through into the box, and hit a delightful curling shot, which beat Mautone, but hit the top of the bar before going out of play.

Junior Haynes was then introduced in place of Steve Stott and made an immediate impact down the left wing. Barrowcliff's first time ball flicked through to Haynes with space in the area. The midfielder's initial effort beat the onrushing Borg but a great block just in front of the line by Withe saw the ball come back to Haynes. The midifelder then crossed the ball to the back post to Coombs, who had the simple task of heading the ball into an empty net bringing the Rebels back onto level terms.

The game then fell into a quieter patch where both sides were showing caution when going forward, with a lot at stake within the game. With ten minutes to go, Slough raised themselves again and Rainford began to dictate the play from the right of the midfield. With some space, a low whipped in cross was narrowly missed by the outstretched boot of Coombs, with Borg holding the ball well.

A Rainford corner was then met by Daly and the ball fell to Haynes, who shot on the turn, but the ball went wide of the post.

In a bizarre final few minutes, Leon Townley, now pushed upfront, got put through down the right wing. His lofted cross was aimed at Barrowcliff, but the referee adjudged that Barrowcliff was pushed and awarded Slough a very dubious penalty. This caused friction between the two sets of players, with a number getting involved with arms raised and hands clenched.

When the dust finally settled, Rainford stepped up to strike the ball hard to Borg's right, and despite the keeper getting his hand to the ball, he could not prevent it going in.

The game then took some minutes to restart as the Carshalton management team continued to argue with the match officials and more incidents occurred on the pitch. Again, when players had settled down, the referee consulted his linesman. Paul Coombs was sent off, and Akers received his second booking of the game and left the field. Carshalton immediately pushed forward, but the ball forward from the kick off went through to Mautone.

In the 98th minute of the game, Asamoah was released into the left hand channel of the area. Holding off the challenge of Withe, the young striker kept his cool to slot low past Borg, and put the game out of reach of the Robins.