Slough fall at Uxbridge

The Rebels travelled across to Honeycroft on Monday in search of valuable points, and once again they returned home empty handed after this disappointing result.

This little stadium has really become a bogey ground for our club in the last decade, but at the end of ninety minutes no-one could deny that the home side fully deserved the three points at the conclusion of what was really a brilliant game of football before the Rebels faded out of the game during the final quarter of an hour.

Anyone consulting the programme before the start of the game would have been impressed to see that Uxbridge had been in top form recently after knocking Arlesey (after a replay), Maidenhead United from the Conference South, and then Lowestoft Town, leaders of the Ryman Premier Division, out of the FA Trophy leaving them with a high profile away tie against Luton Town at Kenilworth Road in the same competition on Saturday week, a tie that will certainly win the club some useful income even if glory fails to come their way.

On Monday afternoon the Rebels began well virtually monopolising the play during the opening quarter of an hour as the ball was spread around with many accurate moves emanating from Paul Coyne and Stuart Swift, but the giant ‘keeper Michael Piwonski looked well in charge of his penalty area, remaining untroubled until the twenty-fifth minute when a clearance was belted out to the right. This landed perfectly on the head of Danny Murphy who directed it back and over the ‘keeper and into the roof of the net to give Slough a useful start.

Unfortunately the lead lasted just about five minutes longer before a sharp attack by the home side left the Rebels in a defensive tangle with Kevin Warner just managing to get his hoot on the ball between Steve Perkins and Charlie Fanner the ball being struck powerfully into the roof of the net to level the score. The remaining minutes of the first half saw the Slough forwards largely controlled by the strong home defence, and the interval arrived with the scores level with Slough having enjoyed the majority of the play.

The second half saw Uxbridge taking a firmer grip on the match with the Rebels fading somewhat. The visiting defence began to look somewhat shaky as Charlie Fanner made some good saves, but playing with defenders that were new to him he was unable to control his penalty area with the same confidence that his opposite number displayed at the far end

Steve Sinclair was also below his best and he moved over to the opposite wing to try to make an impression, but was eventually substituted by Ben Porter. Meanwhile Piwonski was hardly troubled by the crosses from the Rebels strikers that consistently dropped into his hands and the home side began to look in control of the game as imagination among the Slough players seemed to falter. Both Sean Sonner and Adam Logie were called upon without changing things as the game reached its later stages.

At the other end of the pitch the Slough defence began to look somewhat frantic as Uxbridge applied more pressure, and the winner came with thirteen minutes remaining following several off the line clearances with Craige Tomkins eventually banging the ball into the net to win the match. In those closing minutes Slough never really looked like stealing a draw as they looked drained of energy probably as a result of their efforts on the previous Thursday at Beaconsfield. On the other hand Uxbridge had plenty left looking remarkably like possible play-off candidates if they could only finish their season in this vein instead of finding themselves on the verge of the relegation zone with just fifteen points in their locker.

With Hitchin Town netting nine against Soham Town on Monday afternoon the leaders continued to stamp their authority on the league situation. Strangely the Rebels managed to hold on to their fourth place in the table due to Leighton Town dropping two points at home to Aylesbury while Rugby Town lost at Bedworth to a 93rd minute winner. Marlow also had a very bad afternoon losing 1-2 to the visiting Northwood who began the day at the foot of the table so things could have been a lot worse.