Seeby snatches winner for 10 man Rebels

Slough Town recovered from a goal down at Atherstone to claim all three points, despite the dismissal of Paul Coyne in the first half for two yellow cards.

Garry Sippetts' equaliser just before half-time was added to by Chris Seeby with a quarter of an hour remaining, and Slough did just enough to hold on for the victory, though the patched-up hosts gave the Rebels a couple of scares near the end.

Atherstone, unbeaten in the league but having suffered some recent upheaval with budget cuts and changes to the board, entertained Slough hoping to capitalise on the poor recent form of the visitors - with the Rebels having been knocked out of the FA Cup prematurely and suffering a home defeat against Marlow in midweek.

The preparations of the Slough team were hampered by a delayed arrival due to traffic problems, which pushed the kick-off back fifteen minutes. But the Rebels were quickly into their stride, looking likely to break clear of the Adders with quick attacks, and Steve Sinclair was the first to threaten Courtney Belford in the Atherstone goal, but the big ‘keeper saved comfortably.

Craig O'Connor, who was soon forced off with a recurrence of an injury, played a dangerous ball right across the face of goal, but Atherstone left-back Greg Moseley intervened in the nick of time with Sinclair ready to tap in. From the resulting corner, Simon Martin's header came back off the post, with the ball being cleared before any Slough player could capitalise.

Soon after, Sinclair found himself clean through on goal, but Belford spread himself well and saved with his legs. The follow up header from Martin went over the bar as it looked like Slough would break the deadlock at any moment.

But Slough struggled to break down the visitors after the early pressure, and were thwarted by the linesman's flag far too often. Seven minutes before the break, Atherstone’s Simeon Smith punished the Rebels with the opening goal of the game. Moments after hitting the post, Atherstone launched another attack and from the right, the ball was played into the middle, allowing the unmarked Smith a simple finish.

Slough seem to have developed a habit of making things difficult for themselves this season, and that trend looked to continue as Paul Coyne was dismissed for his second bookable offence – the second for retaliation to a challenge.

However, Slough gave themselves a fighting chance with a goal on the stroke of half-time. A blocked Logie free kick was played back into the box and half-cleared to Sinclair on the edge, who volleyed the ball toward goal. Belford saved the winger's bouncing effort, but spilt the ball to the feet of substitute Garry Sippetts, who finished easily from close range.

In the second half, Slough struggled to maintain any momentum from the goal, but looked comfortable playing with ten men on a difficult pitch. Both sides traded long-range efforts, with Keen forcing an easy save from Jackson. Slough’s best effort came from Simon Martin, who headed agonisingly wide, but the flag was up yet again as Adam Logie looked to turn the ball in at the far post.

Slough kept applying pressure as the game opened up, the visitors always at risk on the counter-attack – but Jackson was not seriously troubled as Chris Seeby and Steve Perkins repelled the Adders attacks.

With fifteen minutes remaining, Danny Murphy swung over a cross which Adam Logie headed on to the unmarked Seeby at the back post, and the centre-half allowed the ball to bounce before coolly drilling the ball past Belford to complete the comeback and put Slough ahead.

Slough managed to survive a couple of scares near the end, with Tyrone Amory twice threatening. Deep into stoppage time, Amory will feel he should have done better with a clear sight of Jackson’s goal, but he dragged his left-footed effort past the post – and Slough were able to claim a gutsy three points and deny Atherstone again, having also recovered from a deficit with ten men the previous season against the Warwickshire side at Holloways Park.