Rebels awarded three points after abandonment

Slough Town were awarded all three points from this National League South match, which was controversially abandoned with 70 minutes played due to an off-field medical emergency.

A wonderful Slough performance was cut short after a spectator fell ill during the second half, which led to play being suspended. Following the pause, the match officials confirmed that despite them being happy to resume the match, the Bath City management refused, which led to the game being abandoned.

It was intended to be a special day for the club and its charity partner, Thames Hospice. The Slough Town side wore a one-off green kit, and fundraising activities managed to raise over £2,800 for the hospice. The match attracted an attendance of 1,406 – our fourth highest league attendance since we moved to Arbour Park in 2016.

The game began superbly for Slough, who were duly rewarded with another goal in the opening minute. Quick thinking from Matt Lench saw him win, and then play a free kick into the path of Slavi Spasov, who controlled the ball superbly before firing it beyond on-loan goalkeeper Josey Casa Grande in the Bath City goal, making it three consecutive matches that the Rebels hit the back of the net in the first minute of a match.

The early strike put Slough firmly in the driving seat, and just a minute later David Ogbonna had the chance to double the lead at the back post as Johnny Goddard’s cross fell to him, but Casa Grande spread himself to block.

Only six minutes had been played when another great chance fell to defender Dan Bayliss, whose header from a Lench corner was kept out by Casa Grande.

Bath’s first chance came with 11 minutes played, Kieron Parselle heading over the bar when unmarked from a corner kick.

The Rebels continued to assert their early dominance on the game, with Goddard netting what would have been his 15th goal of the season just before the half hour mark. A defensive mix-up was seized upon by Goddard, who beat his man and wrapped the ball into the bottom left corner, much to the delight of a packed Arbour Park.

Bath missed a chance to pull one back when Bayliss was muscled off the ball by Cody Cooke, but the striker blazed high and wide.

The first half dominance only intensified for Slough, with Spasov denied again by Casa Grande after Bayliss had played him in with a pass from the back. But a mistake-ridden Bath City were the masters of their own downfall again on 39 minutes. After losing possession to Goddard, the ball rolled through to the electric Ogbonna, who ran clean through on goal before calmly slotting the ball into the back of the net to make it 3-0.

Just a few minutes later, Slough added another. Leon Chambers-Parillon won the ball from Tom Smith and set off on a run before finding Goddard with a clever pass. He played in Ogbonna, whose powerful strike was beaten away by Casa Grande, but the ball fell to the feet of Spasov, who was in the right place to net his second of the afternoon two minutes before the break.

After the first-half blitz, the second half started well initially for Slough, with Spasov missing a chance to seal his hat-trick. He received a pass from Ogbonna before being denied by Casa Grande yet again.

Ogbonna was next to be denied by Bath’s goalkeeper, his left-footed strike being turned away after Spasov had chested the ball into his path.

However, The Romans broke quickly and managed to pull a goal back. Cooke slipped a pass through to Ewan Clark, who neatly lobbed Dan Lincoln to reduce the arrears in the 58th minute.

Moments later, Cooke was inches away from notching Bath’s second goal as he curled an effort narrowly over the angle of post and bar.

But Cooke made no mistake minutes later, poking the ball past Lincoln after a long throw into the penalty area was flicked on. The visitors were in the ascendancy, but it proved to be the final action of the game with play stopped a few minutes later, leading to the players leaving the field.

Over a month later, The National League decided that the game was not to be replayed, and the match was awarded to Slough Town in accordance with League rules. However, the League’s Regulations state that while the Rebels are awarded three points, goals for and against are not to be added to the league table.