Saints recorded their first ever victory at Wexham Park with a stunning three goal burst in the second half. The main talking point however was the surprise return in goal of Tony Roberts, who received a mixed reception from the Saints fans when his name was read out.
Another surprise was Lenny Piper only making the subs bench, with Kevin Mudd preferring Paul Turner and John Pollard in centre midfield.
For the first hour of the game, the home side looked the more likely to open the scoring.
Roberts made a good save from Strevens on 18 minutes, and Rainford's cross almost deceived Roberts late in the first half. Best efforts for the Saints came from a Steve Clark header on 22 minutes, which was saved by Danny Honey, who turned down a move to Clarence Park earlier in the week. David Pratt also came close on 43 minutes when he got a touch to Tom Meredith's free kick.
Three Saints players were booked in the first half. Frank McCormack kicked the ball at Al-James Hannigan. Lee Harvey was booked when he brought down a Slough player just outside the box and John Pollard got involved in a bit of wrestling with Slough's Mark Hawthorne, who was also booked.
A tactical change was made at half time with Lenny Piper replacing Keith Salton, with Pollard dropping back to defence. Slough again started the half pushing forward, with Strevens having a good chance on 50 minutes when his shot went across the face of the goal.
Saints managed to claw their way back into the game and took charge just after the hour. McCormack had a good shot save by Honey. Moments after that Saints had a very good shout for a penalty when Dave Timothy went in two-footed leaving Clark on the deck, but Referee Hermitage to the fury of the Saints fans behind the goal waved play on!
Honey made two superb saves in the space of 30 seconds. First from Piper's shot which he cleared of the line with his boot, and then from the corner Harvey's header from close range was again pushed away for another corner. This time HARVEY made no mistake with his header, which Honey could only help into the roof of the net.
Saints continued to press forward with the Slough defence looking shaky whenever we attacked. The second goal came on 76 minutes when an error by Daly let Rob HAWORTH break clear to the edge of the box before unleashing a shot, which went into the top corner of the net.
The game was put out of Slough's reach on 81 minutes when PIPER finished off a move, which he started, pouncing to net the rebound after Honey had saved Clark's initial shot. We could have scored a fourth late on, but a header from substitute Steve Butler went over the top. |
