Early Dismissal Leads To Battling Performance

Slough crashed to only their second home defeat in the league this season, however the Rebels definitely did enough to deserve a point against high flying Dulwich at a very wet Stag Meadow.

Eddie Denton’s men produced their most battling performance of the season, disallowed goals, the woodwork being hit and goal line scrambles all featured in this electrifying encounter but Adrian Brown’s 3rd minute dismissal would prove decisive as Dulwich would go on to win by two goals to one.

Slough’ new Scandinavian star Martin Moller arrived from Denmark to ease The Rebels growing defensive worries but after 3 minutes he may of started to feel a bit homesick. Dulwich were out of the blocks faster than a very fast Greyhound and looked odds on to score, Omari won the ball on the wing and took the ball round Browne, Slough’s stand in captain miss-judged the situation and pulled the striker down to prevent him from scoring. The referee had no choice but to send Browne off and award a penalty to Dulwich, the away side converted and it was not looking good for Slough.

Slough were forced to regroup, leading goal scorer Ian Hodges dropped back into defence in the effort to strengthen things up at the back. The Rebels had a fight on their hands and they knew it.

As expected Dulwich were playing attacking football but not much was getting past new signing Moller. Ian Hodges was also a commanding presence in the back line, together Moller and Hodges were making a number of vital clearances.

The Rebels were doing what they could when an attacking chance came their way but the attacking duo of Miller and Boot were not firing on all cylinders.

The Rebels were on the defensive for most of the half and were doing a great job of keeping the goal deficit to only one considering there was a striker and a debutant in defence.

Alan Foster was called into action and as usual reacted well under pressure, he managed to pull out a great reaction save from a Danny Ward blast. In spite of being a man down it was Slough that finished the half on top. Hyatt and Muller had two great chances from long range but both efforts dipped over the bar. Dulwich were not playing well and at half time you felt there was a chance Slough could pull something special out of the bag.

The Slough fans were getting used to witnessing a second half collapse by their team, and considering the one player advantage held by Dulwich a repeat performance of Lewes may of been on the cards.

However the remaining 10 men on the pitch came out ready to prove a point, and hell did they prove their point. You could see the players were working as a real unit, it may not of been the prettiest football ever but it was the gutsiest performance of the season so far.

Ian Hodges was still playing in his defensive role but at as soon as Slough broke and there was a goal scoring opportunity he was there ready to put the ball in the back of the net.

Dulwich were still gaining the chances to score but whether it was a strong tackle from Moller or a fantastic save from Foster, Slough were preventing the away side from getting a second.

If you had of strolled in at half time it would have been hard to notice Slough were a man down as we were dominating the visitors.

With twenty minutes remaining Steer was replaced by Harris, Slough’s concentration momentarily slipped and Dulwich had taken the opportunity to scored a second. It was Omari once again, he won the ball from Harris near the half way line and went in alone and the strike was unstoppable.

Slough kept on battling and their heads never dropped. Sloughs rewards for working so hard were to follow. Freddie Hyatt whipped in a hefty corner, and unmarked Hodges was lurking and he had got what he and the rest of the team deserved, Slough were rightfully back in the game.

The Rebels fought on and were so close to gaining a deserved equaliser, Alex Haddow drove in a cross from the edge of the area, Tony Boot connected with his head and the ball looked to be heading for the top corner but at the last second it swerved and rebounded off the crossbar.

After Dulwich had a goal disallowed, Slough went down the other end and gained a corner. A superb delivery from Hyatt zoomed into the goal mouth, the Slough fans held their breath as Ryan Spencer missed a free header.

Wilkinson earned Slough another corner, Hyatt drove it in and the ball seemed to roll on the goal line, however no Slough player could connect and Dulwich were once again let off.

Deep into injury time a Tony Boot goal was disallowed, as the whistle went the Slough fans had to take a moment to regain their breath. The players had nothing to be ashamed about, they had battled hard and at the end of the day Dulwich had walked away with an undeserved 3 points. Every Slough player and every Slough fan should be proud of the gutsy efforts of all 10 players on the pitch.

As the table stands we still have every chance of finishing in the top six and if we continue to perform like we did on Saturday then Slough Town should be feared by every team in this league.