Slough Town dig deep for share of the spoils after Drakes-Thomas opener

Photo credit: Zak Rana (@zrdocs on Instagram)

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Slough Town backed up Saturday’s impressive home win over Ebbsfleet United with a useful point on the road at Eastbourne Borough on Monday afternoon.

For a five-minute spell in the second half it looked like the Rebels might be capable of heading home with all three points, after Jaiden Drakes-Thomas skipped past a couple of challenges to fire the visitors in front in the 55th minute.

But The Sports were back on level terms just six minutes later when Pemi Aderoju got on the end of a corner to force the ball past Slough keeper Adam Desbois.

From that point it was anyone’s game, with the hosts just about shading proceedings and creating the better chances.

But Scott Davies’ side held on for another decent point away from home after their opening day draw away to Tonbridge Angels.

With Monday’s game coming hot on the heels of Saturday’s win over Fleet, Davies made four changes to his starting line-up, with Drakes-Thomas, Jordan Greenidge, Johnny Goddard and Wiktor Makowski replacing Jared Myers, Josh Apdepoju, Ruben Bartlett-Antwi and Davies himself.

It was Makowski’s first competitive start for the Rebels, the striker having been suspended for the team’s opening matches following his dismissal for Flackwell Heath in their play-off final last season.

It was also a welcome sight to see Tyrese Dyce back out on the pitch and taking part in the pre-match warm-up. He picked up an injury following his return to the club from Maidenhead United but isn’t too far away from a return now.

After making a fast start against Ebbsfleet, the Rebels came close to taking an early lead once again in the 11th minute when Tarik Gidaree fed the ball through to Greenidge, who’s backheel ran for Makowski to fire straight at the Eastbourne keeper.

Makowski had a good battle in the first half against The Sports defence, while at the opposite end Desbois was forced into a couple of decent saves by the hosts.

The best moment from a Rebels perspective came from Goddard in the 41st minute when his free kick from just outside the area clattered back off the crossbar. Tyrique Clarke then saw the ball scrambled away from him as he looked to follow in and force home the rebound.

Having created the better chances but also withstood a lot of Eastbourne pressure, the game was very much in the balance at the interval. And that’s the way things remained, despite both sides finding the back of the net in the second half.

First, in the 55th minute Drakes-Thomas did well to skip past a couple of defenders and into the box before slamming the ball past the keeper. Sports though were level in the 61st minute with Aderoju scoring from a corner.

Desbois was forced into an excellent save in the 74th minute as Eastborne stepped up their efforts following their leveller. But the Rebels were able to soak up the pressure to come away with a creditable and well-earned point.

The result sees them slip to 16th place, but they now have two home matches against Enfield Town on Saturday (August 30) and Chippenham Town on Tuesday (September 2) to try and improve on that.

He said: “I felt like it was an ok performance. It was a bit different from Ebbsfleet as there were some tired legs. We ground out a result and were able to get four points from six. I feel like coming into this weekend, people would have probably thought we’d get zero playing against full time teams. To get four out of six is great.

“Everyone has Ebbsfleet to do well in this league and they thought they’d dominate us. But to beat them 2-0 and get a clean sheet was satisfying. And then here, getting another draw against a full-time team, you can only be pleased.

“It’s always disappointing to concede after scoring. I feel like after we scored the level just dropped a bit and we allowed them to gain momentum. But it’s a learning curve for if it happens again.

“Of course I’m happy with the goal. It was a good goal. I’m happy for myself as well and have ambitions for the season as well. You’ll definitely see more goals from me and you’ll see more from the lads as well.”