Burnell bags four in 10 goal thriller

This exciting game of ten goals provided a score-line only previously achieved three times since World War II by the Rebels, who recovered from a three goal deficit to beat landlords Beaconsfield SYCOB.

The previous games that had ended with a 6-4 victory were those against Twickenham in 1945, during the first season of the Corinthian League, and in 1984 at Champion Hill against Dulwich Hamlet when Keith White scored a hat-trick of three free kicks in a match when Slough Town were leading 6-2 but then relaxed and let a couple of sloppy goals in near the end.

This game however was totally different as the Rebels had to fight back from 0-3 and then score six successive goals in order to win the match and move into fourth place in the table.

Few of the three hundred or so who watched this match will be likely to forget this extraordinary game that was hastily arranged for Thursday night. The Rebels had to take the field without Jamie Jackson who was declared unfit following a leg injury, and Simon Sweeney and Chris Seeby who were not available as a consequence of the altered date of this fixture. Charlie Fanner from Holmer Green replaced the stricken Jamie Jackson on this occasion.

Beaconsfield fielded a youthful looking side who were very quick across the sticky surface and they were the first to find their feet on a slippery surface at the beginning of the match. In fact they appeared to be so devastatingly fast that they seemed to totally bewilder the home defence that quickly fell apart in the opening twenty one minutes. This was strange because Slough were clearly the better side, and were enjoying the most of the ball only to find themselves embarrassingly 0-3 down during these opening stages.

The Rams opened their account after just six minutes when Stefan Cox tore through the centre of the home defence and unleashed a tremendous shot that skidded past the diving Charlie Fanner in the home goal.

The Slough fans were silenced, and after Carl Dennison had made a couple of fine saves the Rebels went further behind after a quarter of an hour when Riccardo Cannon finished off a raid down the left to fire past Fanner.

Just six minutes after this the dangerous Aaron McLeish seemed to have condemned Slough to a shock defeat when he put SYCOB almost out of reach with a stunning third with the Rebels in almost disarray with only a quarter of the match played.

Three goals down, and still playing the better football the home side steadied themselves, but it appeared that things were not going well for them when a Stuart Swift free kick glanced off the right hand post moments later.

But another free kick in the twenty fifth minute, a few yards outside the penalty area, saw Swift smash the ball past Dennison to give some encouragement to the bewildered supporters, and signs of a recovery were there for all to see without expecting miracles.

But miracles do sometimes come in this strange game, and seven minutes later Paul Coyne thundered into the box to fire another past Carl Dennison to reduce the deficit to one. Suddenly the Rebels were on song and in the fortieth minute Danny Burnell equalised for the home side following a quarter of an hour of determined recovery with the first half amazingly level at three apiece.

The second half began with the Rebels enjoying a period of domination, and within five minutes Burnell had given the Rebels the lead when Simon Martin crossed perfectly from the left the diminutive striker headed against the crossbar, and the thrashed the rebound past Dennison to give Slough the lead.

With the home team in charge but still in danger of conceding a goal the game continued to be full of interest. There were plenty of opportunities for Slough to take command, but SYCOB always looked likely to find a way through a somewhat jittery defence.

Relief came at last with ten minutes remaining when Burnell robbed Dennison of a loose ball and turned quickly to fire into the net.

With the game looking safely in the Rebels grasp substitutions were applied - Ben Porter, late of Windsor & Eton, replaced Steve Sinclair while Chris Herron and Sean Sonner also took part in the closing stages.

It was Porter who provided the most significant moment when his perfect cross from deep on the right wing fell for Danny Burnell to head past Dennison and claim his fourth goal of the match.

There was still time for Beaconsfield to make a late impression when Daniel Lake struck the ball into the home net with the last kick of the match following a free-kick to end a thrilling game in which no cards were shown by the excellent officials.

This result confirmed that football really is a very funny game!