Davies praises depleted Rebels as Slough’s recent revival stalls in Wiltshire

Photo credit: Cameron Webb

--

Salisbury 2, Slough Town 1

Slough Town failed to build on back-to-back league and cup wins as they were beaten 2-1 away by struggling Salisbury.

Having shown great resilience to overcome Hampton & Richmond Borough 3-2 in the league and managed to haul themselves back from the brink to knock Enfield Town out of the FA Cup at Arbour Park by the same scoreline, Scott Davies would have been hopeful of going to the Raymond McEnhill Stadium and getting a positive result.

However, through this recent return to form, the Rebels have been blighted by injury, losing their captain Henry Ochieng and striker Ruben Bartlett-Antwi in the cup win over the Towners to add to an already long list of absentees.

So, it was a youthful side which travelled to Salisbury for Saturday’s clash, and with youth comes inexperience and inconsistency. Davies said afterwards the Rebels were without eight of their most experienced players and had an average squad age for the clash of less than 21. 

Early pressure from the Whites led to the home side taking the lead in the 16^th minute through Tommy Willard. Salisbury came close to a second on the half-hour mark when Matt Taylor clattered the crossbar with a thunderous strike from distance.

But Slough also had a couple of good spells in the first half without making them count. Having forced a series of corners that the hosts defended well, and with Johnny Goddard very nearly playing Wiktor Makowski in on goal, Josh Adepoju went close with a shot from just inside the area that flew over the bar.

Having scored the late winner in last week’s cup win over Enfield, Jaiden Drakes-Thomas made a crucial block to prevent Enfield making it 2-0 early in the second half, and having come on as a 56^th minute replacement for Brian Nelson, Jared Myers drew the Rebels level on the hour mark when he tapped home from close range from Peter Ojemen’s header.

The hosts came close to restoring their advantage from two one-on-one situations. The danger was averted on both occasions by some excellent – if last ditch – defending from the Rebels and a superb save from the returning Adam Desbois.

Desbois then palmed away a curling effort from Salisbury substitute Josh Hedges in the 74^th minute. But the home side eventually made their pressure pay when Hedges cut onto his right foot and swept a low shot beyond Desbois – reminiscent of Drakes-Thomas’ winner against Enfield the previous week.

Slough attempted to retrieve the situation in the final 15 minutes, with Tyrique Clarke forcing a save from Buse with 10 to play. Makowski also looked like he might strike the visitors level when he skipped free of his marker in the box, but he wasn’t able to convert.

Makowski had one more, massive, opportunity in stoppage time, racing clean through on Buse’s goal but his shot curled into the side-netting.

Davies said in his post-match interview with Connor McNeish for sloughtownfc.net that Makowski shouldn’t blame himself for the side’s failure to pick up a point.

“I spoke to Wik in there, and I don’t want him to crucify himself,” said Davies. “On another day he probably takes it, but today the keeper’s managed to make a save and push it past the post. But, on reflection, we tried and we huffed, and we puffed. We had an extremely young side out and you must look at our six most experienced players, apart from Johnny Goddard, they’re all injured or ill. It’s tough, you can see how depleted we are. We had Dan Roth playing at centre half, and Harvey Walker playing at left-back. It’s tricky.

“But I must say I thought their performance levels were good across the board. There’s a way to lose games and the way they played today, you can afford to lose like that. They tried and they created some moments. We were unfortunate not to go 1-0 up in the first half. There was a good block from Josh. But overall, it was a young team that put out an honest performance, and I can’t fault that.”

“They’ve (Salisbury) invested well and have a good squad to choose from. They’re a good side. You only have to look at their bench. A lot of their bench would have got into a lot of other National League South sides. Josh Hedges comes on, and you know the quality he has got.

“When we have everyone back, we’ll have the headache of trying to pick a squad ourselves. Now, there’s no headache, we’ve got the players we can pick and we’re also delving into the college programme.”

The result leaves the Rebels 17th in the table while Salisbury move off the bottom up to 23rd place.