Slough Town v Atherstone Town

[Matt]

I hear we are currently 0-2 down. We really are setting ourselves up for an exciting end to the season!

[Matt]

We went 0-3 down and Yeboah has been sent off.

 

Dean Harper has made it 1-3.

Edited March 20, 2010 by Matt

[Matt]

It's now 3-3. Sonner (pen) and Seeby the scorers.

[Matt]

It's finished 3-3. Great fightback by the sounds of it, but I'd like to know how we got to 0-3 down in the first place!

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

We went down 3-0 in 30 mins due to piss poor defending and total stupidity!

 

Yads sent off for a foul he need not have given away making a second Yellow after his first stupid foul to attract a yellow.

 

Fortunately Harper got us back into it with a superb header in from a cross from Murphy.

 

Second half we got going when haper went off injured for Dwain Clarke? and Martin went off for Sippets - think it was that way round.

 

Missed lots of chances but a penalty for hand ball was put away by Sonner on the rebound.

 

Third goal scrambled in by Sebey.

 

 

We should not have put ourselves in a position of having to come back from 3-0 down and so that was 2 points wasted - not impressed with todays performance even though we scraped back to get a draw.

 

P.S. Good to see Radders making friends with the number 9, and then the 9 threatening old men!

[Tom]

Harper went off for Jeffrey, not Clarke.

[ian_warner49]

Ridiculous defending. Strange refereeing. Good fight in the second half to come back and should have won in the end. Still, not winning comfortably against a poor side was disappointing.

 

Would be nice to put a run together and keep the same team for a while whether we get to the playoffs or not.

Edited March 20, 2010 by ian_warner49

[Rebel Yeller]

It was a good fight back by Slough but....the first thirty minutes was one of the worst periods of play we've produced in a long time. Atherstone were a poor team but we just gifted them goal after goal. Yeboah sending off was totally unneccessary - with NBH injured why didn't he take responsibility. Perks had a shaky game. Rest of the defence looked like they'd never met each other. Up front Sonner tried hard but Martin was once again playing at Combined Counties standard. Officials were poor.

 

Second half we over ran Atherstone who showed how poor they were. Their keeper was big and fat but we tested him little. Slough should have won and would have if Elliott had been fit and playing. Squad now looking very thin. A top five finish will be a major achievement now,

[Chris]

2 points dropped sadly due to 20 mins of woeful defending, the goals would not have looked out of place at an under 10 match!

 

Lucky not to be 4-1 down as they missed a pen and had a blatent one turned down.

 

Second half with 10 men we were excellent and you would have thought they had 10 men, but we should not have put ourselves in that position with schoolboy defending and a red card that could have been easily avoided.

 

Though Sonner was excellent today, and special mention to the subs Sippetts and Jeffrey (one great clearance off the line) but the bigger picture with Sutton winning was 2 points dropped.

[Ian]

I'd resigned myself to missing out on promotion a while ago so even if we'd have lost that game I'd have come away having been thoroughly entertained! 3-0 down ALL from Atherstone shots that we didn't clear and which they got to the loose ball quicker than us. They also had a cast iron penalty shout turned down at 3-0. Great fightback lead by Sean Sonner who ran himself into the ground. He's rapidly becoming one of my favourite ever Rebels players.

 

Special mention to the few travelling Atherstone fans who were a right laugh during the first half. They're even more cynical than us - at 3-0 up, a man advantage and with a penalty to take they were still convinced they wouldn't win!!!! Their songs were great although all sung in a language you could only describe as very drunk!!

 

What upset their number 9 at the end? Did Radders call him a genius?!!

[Mr Rebel]

9 took objection to Radders telling him he should have been sent off, which was a valid point seeing as he could have been booked 3 or 4 times

 

we started fairly bright but as said failure to clear two awful attempts on goal left an easy chance to their 9. 2nd goal again should have been cleared and after the first effort was saved 9 had a tap in. at that stage we were still keeping the ball fairly well i thought

 

pathetic pull on their striker by Yeboah with the striker going away from goal was a pathetic thing to do. seems it was only a 2nd yellow and not straight red (?). them wanting the ball more cost the 3rd goal from that free kick

 

brilliant freekick by Murphy and header by Harper gave us hope. think their pen was fairly soft but as said they had a stonewall one turned down after that

 

despite the awful 1st half im pretty gutted we didn't win. yet again on another day we would have scored 4 or 5 just in the 2nd half. at least we saw urgency from the team. edgeworth just wide and murphy had one blocked and it spun wide. sippetts also probably should have scored

 

Sonner was bloody great with his workrate and though his penalty was pretty dreadful he deserved to score the follow up

 

great header by Seeby to get in the end a deserved point. Seeby looks really good and good to see Duncan just keeps it simple

 

we had loads of seemingly injured players on the pitch at the end which is worrying with how many games are coming up. Sincs played on injured from the 1st half. murphy seemed to be injured. perks also seemed to have a leg injury. bateman and sonner were big time tired by the end as well

[A Rebel and a Saint]

It's true we should never have put ourselves in that position to have to come back like that - the defending was very poor - but to come back from 3-0 down with 10 men shows the potential our team has - which is quite frustrating in a way!

Sonner ran and ran and despite having his penalty saved, deserved his goal. Special mention to Danny Murphy who had a tough job playing as a wing back but played very well in my opinion. Jeffrey made one great goal line clearance and one great goal saving tackle and played very well again.

We drop to 5th and are well and truely in a fight for 4th and 5th spot with Chesham and Sutton Coldfield. Every game is a big game now!

[Tom]

Their number 9 was lucky to be on the pitch at the end after what I thought today was one of the worst refereeing and linesman's performance ever witnessed. He lost all respect on the pitch and the game spiralled into a farce. The best decision he gave was to give Harper's ball put out for a corner a goal kick!

 

Disappointing not to get a result in the end after some of the chances Slough had in the 2nd half, one of which was an open goal. Need to get maximum points midweek if Slough are to sustain a play-off place having since a 10 point gap over Sutton Coldfield now become 2.

 

Looking thin defensively now though with NBH, Sweeney, Yeboah and now Harper out. Saying that, Edgeworth as a defender looks better than he does in midfield.

 

Do any of our players practise penalties?

[Radders]

I had a feeling Sean would miss the penalty; he had to wait ages to take it after their bloke was down injured. Also he grabbed the ball really quick looking really confident and then with each passing moment he looked more and more nervous. At least he followed it in. I have to agree with Ian, Sean is a fan's favourite because of his work rate and application. There was a 15 minute period at the end of the 1st half when he and Harper looked like the only 2 players for us who still believed they could get back into the game. Harper put in 3 thunderous tackles in a row and Sonner did not give up on any ball, lost cause or not. Sonner was by far MOTM but honourable mentions to Harps until he went off injured, as well as Duncan and Bateman in centre midfield who were phenominal during the second half fightback. All season we've had to put up with, for want of a better word, the 'lightweight' nature of Kean, Edgeworth and Clark, but in the second half these 2 guys showed how to play midfield, holding their positions, getting forward when they could, but snapping into tackle after tackle and not giving Atherstone an inch. While it was totally frustrating to be 3-0 down (which could have been worse btw) and to have had Yads sent off for a moment of utter stupidity, the second half has really renewed my faith that this team can still reach the play-offs. Plus, while it's not great having to come from 3-0, at least it inspired the crowd to be as loud as it has all season, including Tuesday night!!! As mentioned before the officials were dreadful but they actually got all of the major decisions right I think, it was more a case of not stamping down on their blatant time-wasting earlier and giving some dodgy corner and throw in calls that annoyed me. They certainly weren't to blame for our capitulation in the 1st half.

 

To finish off, the Number 9!!! What a nice guy. Ian, I didn't call him a genius, not sure if he may have called me one in amongst all the f'ing and blinding though. All I can say about that is ... Chris Sliski started it, I was merely an innocent bystander caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. I would like to think he would face some sort of action for the way he treated Pepe and Ted but I wouldn't expect so.

[charlie]

Blimey that was frustrating. Awful first 35 mins, with our blushes being saved by Murphy's cross and Deano's header. Really hope Harps' injury isn't serious as he was on fire before he came off. Perks had a shocking first half but was improved by the second.

 

Completely agree that Yads was idiotic to pick up two completely avoidable yellow cards. With NBH out for the season this was his chance to step up and prove he should be a consistent back four choice.

 

Having said all that, I was gutted not to come away with a win - the fight back in the second half was brilliant to watch. Sonner and Murphy have got to be the top two contenders for player of the month for March - awesome performances from them both. Kyle Jeffries had a great game as well when he came on - he's got to be in with a shout for a few more 1st XI performances now.

 

Had a quick chat with Buchanan and hopefully he'll be back in the squad soon - he didn't seem to think it would be much longer before he's available.

 

As for Adders' no 9, he's a prize idiot. Threatening to hit a fan who only asked how he could possibly have stayed on the pitch and then threatening to hit two volunteer stewards in their 70s as they tried to usher him down the tunnel is disgraceful behaviour. Utter prat.

[charlie]

Oh, and I did give Buchanan his champagne for being February's player of the month at half time - Marcus and I arrived quite late and then I wasn't sure if Elliot had come to the game or not because of his injury - then at half time Gary H was tied up in boardroom duties so finding time for a photograph was a bit difficult.

[chris sliski]

That word again FRUSTRATING..what a hopeless crazy first half !

 

You had to be there to believe it ..It was shocking at times..and if they had scored the penalty ..not sure Slough would have had it in them

to motivate themselves back into a game that was almost lost...

 

Second half and down to 10 men..EVEREST ! look easier to climb ... but now we had come out to do a job , and boy oh boy the players reacted well

and showed they really wanted it...we were back to playing some good football and the players flung themselves all over the place and showed some

real fight and did not go down in a wimper ... Fair enough but we must be kicking ourselves, we did not snatch a late winner , we had chances too...

 

The fact we got a point from a match that we would all have never though we would at half time..

 

this point could help us in the end...fingers crossed

 

bloody frustrating ....but exciting also after the first 45mins...

 

The referee ...his performance was a good as Slough's in the first half , but his was for the whole game...

 

No 9 ..even some of the Atherstone supporters were telling me he is a nutter ! and reacts like that at almost every game...

 

Radders you were right , his elbowing of players was shocking at times ! yet the referee did nothing about it, nor the blatant time wasting and kicking the ball away

 

we should have had a Fergie half of extra time and I am sure we would have won today ...

 

 

chris s

Edited March 20, 2010 by chris sliski

[HEAVY TRUCKER]

we were just not at the races in the first half today , i'm a bit surprised that batsey did not show a little more passion from the dugout perhaps it might have prevented a further repetition after the first goal, wouldn't it be great if at some time before the end of the season we could get some at least half decent officials, though they were consistant which is unfortunate.don't know what batsey said at half time but i wish he would say it before the match kicked off, it looked like a different side out there in the second half , the defence was more confidant whichbled into the attacks being more deadly though i have to say that atherstone looked the more dangerous when they attacked . sean sonner was the man of the match for me today his workrate just did not diminish , if only we could get that from the whole team,we still need to close the opposition down quicker it is the biggest failing we have , next to not being able to find enough space when we have the ball, on corners and free kicks what is the aversion we have in not putting a player on the back of the 18 yard box, it will mean that the opposistion will either have to cover him or risk the chance that he will get the ball as it invariably ends up going over everybody who is standing directly in front of goal and if he is marked that has pulled a defender out of the goalmouth giving one of our forwards more space to shoot through the opportunities are endless and perhaps something some defences will not be expecting lets just hope that sutton don't get anything on monday and we can make the most on tuesday and thursday. come on you rebels.

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Number 9 was Simeon Smith

[3spirit]

I agree with most of the comments about yesterday ie officiating was absolutely terrible, crap defending first half from Slough, the brilliant 10-man fightback etc.

What I can't get over is how we got in such a mess in the first place. We seemed to be without belief in those first 35 mins or so.

 

To me,I thought on paper,Slough looked well balanced with threee centre backs but when we conceded two goals straight away,I thought it looked glaringly obvious that Dean Harper was being exposed at the right hand side, by his lack of pace.Not that Deano played at all bad in other ways ie his headed goal and his heart on his sleeve approach.I just thought Steve Bateman got lucky yesterday when Harps got injured because he then brought on the excellent for his age and experience Kyle Jeffery and switched Chris Seeby to the right hand side.This move changed the way Atherstone were getting their breaks.

Paul Edgeworth was very vocal in the 2nd half and was excellent in the 2nd half but where was he as captain in the 1st half. I do think our team play has suffered with all the personel changes.I'm not saying that we don't need different players but throwing new players straight in doesn't help co-hesion or team spirit and this is an area we do lack in.

 

However,at this moment in time,with the games we've got coming up thick and fast,this is where our squad is going to be needed.I concur with those behind the goal

[i watch from the side] that Jamie Jackson should be playing,I thought he should have started yesterday[after B+B cup game].I think both our keepers are as good as anything else in this league but like all goalies everywhere they make the odd mistake.I thought when Steve Bateman started the season by alternating the keepers every four or five games,dependent on performances was a good move but I think he's been unfair with Jacko,of late,given the fact of Ricky Perks erratic performances.Also now NBH is out,Jacko is far more vocal.To which,our current makeshift defence could be more organised.

 

How we never won that game in 2nd half is still beyond me.We had so many chances.Sean Sonner ran his socks off but all the players in that 2nd half deserve a pat on the back for their performances but my question to Steve Bateman is why don't our beloved team do it for 90 minutes when we've got 11 on the field? !!!