Patience paying off as Slough Town's new-look attack finds its feet against Chippenham

Ruben Bartlett-Antwi slotted home Slough’s equaliser against Chippenham Town. Photo: Zak Rana

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Slough Town have been Steady Eddies so far this season and that’s fine with assistant boss Tony Fontenelle given their massive turnover in players since the end of last season.

This new-look Rebels side haven’t sprinted out of the blocks like last season, and they’re also not labouring at the back of the field like they did two seasons ago. They’re 15th, with nine points from seven matches - a creditable return given the opponents they’ve faced and Fontenelle and manager Scott Davies are pleased with how this group are developing under their tutelage.

It’s going to take time. Like their league rivals down the road in Maidenhead, this group of players barely knew each other at the start of the summer. They’re now starting to gel, understand each other’s games and also understand what’s required of them from the management team.

After drawing their first league match at Tonbridge Angels, Davies’ side then lost their next two at home to Hemel and away to Dorking Wanderers. However, on Tuesday night they wrapped up their second league win of the season with a 3-2 victory over Chippenham Town, a result which stretched their unbeaten league run to four matches. They’ve also taken the scalp of Ebbsfleet United in a 2-0 win at Arbour Park.

That will do for starters, but Davies and Fontenelle are hungry for more.

“In our first season we had a dismal start to the league, then last season we had an excellent start, and this season has been quite steady,” said Fontenelle. We’re pleased overall, there were some games where we feel we should have gained an extra couple of points, but equally, there’s games where we’ve picked up points we might not have expected to get.

“One of the things Scotty and myself wanted to address was the number of goals we were conceding. Especially last season. We had quite an exciting team, and we scored a lot, but we also conceded a lot. We’ve tried to turn that dial a little and shut up shop a bit more. What’s happened this season is we’ve got the defensive element right but at the cost of our attacking.”

He added: “We predicted four points from our two home matches against Enfield (1-1) and Chippenham (3-2) but thought they would come the other way around. Chippenham are an excellent football side, and they comfortably beat us here last season. But Peter Ojemen’s goal in the last minute against Enfield really galvanised us – it was so important.”

Forwards Jordan Greenidge, Ruben Bartlett-Antwi (above top) and Wiktor Makowski were all on the scoresheet against Chippenham as the Rebels came from 2-1 down to win a topsy-turvy but entertaining clash. All three of them took their chances well and it bodes well for Slough to see their forward line click into gear like this after a frustrating start to the season. He said: “We kind of let the handbrake off last night against Chippenham. It was like a game of old. We set up to try and score goals and if truth be told we just wanted to outscore them. We went with three forwards, and it was about getting the ball forward to those players and creating opportunities for them. There was a question mark over the fact none of our strikers had scored this season, so we wanted to buck that trend and we did that with all three scoring last night.”

“I was really pleased for Jordan; he’s created some opportunities. He’s hit the post, and the keepers have made some great saves, and it wasn’t going in the net for him. But then a ball got played through the middle and he got their first and with an outstretched leg managed to steer it past the keeper. Ruben and Wiktor’s finishes were also good.

“We knew the game would become a bit of a basketball game last night where we would attack and they would, but we created more of the better opportunities and openings. Their keeper made some exceptional saves.”

Having now settled into the campaign, the Rebels will look to maintain their unbeaten run in the league and cup, with a couple of tough matches ahead against Torquay United on Saturday and Welling United in the FA Cup second qualifying round on Saturday week (September 13).

“We’ve got a tough couple of games,” said Fontenelle. “At Torquay on Saturday and then at Welling in the FA Cup the following weekend. It’s a tough league. There are no mugs at this level, and you must be on top of your game every week to claw something out of the games. If you get players below par, invariably they are the ones you end up losing.