Rebels defeated at home

Slough learned the hard way that this is a dystopian world as they lost two one at the hands of Gosport Borough. This was despite controlling long periods of play and creating the most clear cut chances. It was a performance that bettered that of the win over Andover and saw the Rebels playing neat attractive football.

After a cagey opening quarter the Rebels began to gain confidence and the first clear chance was created by debutant Thomas Attrell, son of former Rebels legend Gary, after good work on the left wing his cross found Terry Davies whose volley was well saved by the Crouch-esque keeper low to his left.

Minutes later Davies created another shooting chance this time flashing narrowly wide from an acute angle.
Yet more good work from Davies saw his cross from the left evade Matt Miller before falling to Christian Metcalf whose shot was deflected wide.

Slough suffered a cruel blow on the stroke of half time as Julian Bennett was played in from the right wing as the Slough defence pushed out and despite looking suspiciously offside he was waved on by the referee to slot past the advancing Richard Barnard.

However, Slough started the second half with all guns blazing, clearly fired by manager Darron Wilkinson’s half time team talk. Davies with magnificent skill evaded two defenders and from a tight angle 15 yards out fired passed the goalkeeper. It was the least Slough deserved and the Rebels now looked the more likely team.

On 57 minutes a brilliant passing move on the left and neat footwork from Leon Woodruff presented a shooting chance and Gosport keeper Brown did well to tip the shot over the bar.

On the hour mark, an excellent cross from Attrell found Dean Harper at the far post but his shot was sent over the bar.

Five minutes later it was Jeffries chance to show some fleet footed work and this created a shooting opportunity for Davies who sent the ball over the bar.
Slough were piling on the pressure and a Miller looping header was frantically scrambled clear before a glorious cross field ball from Woodruff found Harper whose cross was cut out for a corner. The resulting corner produced another goal mouth scramble, the ball somehow failing to cross the line and give Slough the second goal their football richly deserved.

However, disaster struck five minutes from time as Danny Jeffries was sent off for a second bookable offence following a seemingly innocuous challenge. It may have been that this booking was for dissent as the players and fans frustration at an eccentric refereeing display was starting to boil over.

Worse was to come for Slough as Gosport who had been on the back foot for much of the second half saw this as an opportunity to press forward and the referee at last decided to play advantage as Gosport broke quickly with minutes left. Wilkinson was caught slightly flat footed and Bennett turned before rifling the winner into the bottom left hand corner to secure three undeserved points for Gosport.