Romulus match report- Roms 1-4 Slough Town

[romulus]

Slough's promotion dream lived to fight another day after Elliot Buchannan's injury time intervention at Coles Lane meant they grabbed the extra goal required to leapfrog Sutton Coldfield into the play-off's.

 

The destination of fifth place constantly changed hands on an afternoon of high drama and while there could be no complaints about Slough's victory, the final score was as harsh on Richard Evans men as it was on Sutton.

 

In a lively opening Mykel Beckley couldn't believe his luck when his effort came back off the inside of the post on 3 minutes and it seemed Slough custodian Jamie Jackson got a vital touch. It paid off immediately, the Rebels led a minute later as a quick break saw Buchannan played in by a skillful pass from Mo Sharif and he finished to Matt Sargeant's left.

 

Slough got into their groove and created several openings, Dean Harper's ball was inexplicably headed wide by Sean Sonner on 14 minutes and Buchannan missed when one on one twice, clearing the crossbar when it seemed easier to score.

 

In between this Romulus had one more effort of note, Marcus Brown's clever chip from Beckley's lay off brought the best out of Jackson, who tipped his effort round the post while at full stretch.

 

Going into the second half it was advantage Slough but the Roms were probing, Lei Brown's free kick was well watched and saved by Jackson, Beckley's chip landed just wide and was kept in by substitute Tyrone Fagan, only for his effort to be cleared off the line and Marcus Brown placed a flicked header into Jackson's hands on 68 minutes, either side of the 'keeper and he would have scored.

 

As news of a Sutton goal came in Slough seized the initiative and scored against the run of play, a poorly cleared corner fell to Adam Martin on the edge of the box who drilled a low shot through a crowd of bodies into Sargeant's bottom right hand corner with 20 minutes to go.

 

Only a minute later Marcus Brown struck the woodwork for the home side again, his free kick leaving Jackson stranded and another goal at the other end seemed to have settled the play-off picture, a questionable free kick awarded against Tom Franklin was floated in by Buchannan and nodded in with ease by the unmarked Paul Edgeworth.

 

A second goal for Sutton put the cat amongst the pigeons and a Romulus goal saw the pendulum swing back in the Royals favour. Good work between Fagan and Beckley saw the latter burst in behind and round Jackson to score despite the attentions of Chris Seeby.

 

Seven minutes were left on the clock and Slough made two changes as they chased the goal they needed.

 

The goal did come in stoppage time, but in somewhat controversial circumstances. The ball was cleared by the Roms defence and as Richard Evans Jnr bought the ball out he appeared to be held back twice by his marker, after a midfield tussle the ball fell to Mo Sharif who again played Buchannan in and the striker made no mistake, dinking a cool finish over the onrushing Sargeant.

 

The match ended and the visiting support then played the waiting game, knowing one more Sutton goal at Beaconsfield would end their dream, but that match ended 2-0 sending Slough to Hitchin this week for the play-off semi-final.

 

As for the Roms, 8th place and a second cup semi-final to play on Thursday at Rushall Olympic means another season of progress, their end of season form in the main will bode well for a play-off push of their own next season.

Edited April 24, 2010 by romulus

[Staines-upon-Thames Rebel]

Romulus - an intresting report! - you missed out the blatant hand ball at around 15 mins - not that your report is biased.

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

Well at least it prooves it wasnt JUST the officials that missed it!

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

It just proves how 2 sets of fans could see the game differently i suppose!

 

Failed to mention the ref was poor throughout, i dont know about down Jackos end, but he mis called the sending off- handball (before anyone questions it was goalbount and his hand was well above his head) and an obvious corner and a few other terrible decisions for both teams.

[Mr Rebel]

i think in fairness Romulus didn't play all that badly especially going forward. they hit the woodwork twice and Jacko made a few awesome saves. no report its going to be totally neutral at the end of the day when its made for a particular teams website.

 

Good Luck for next season romulus

[romulus]

Romulus - an intresting report! - you missed out the blatant hand ball at around 15 mins - not that your report is biased.

 

There's a non league forum I post on and one guy used to have as his signature- 'There are three views of the game, yours mine and the truth.'

 

The pen shout on 15 minutes, I was in the stand and didn't have the greatest of views with everyone being so close together in the box, the general concensus from the stand (including Slough fans) was that he couldn't have avoided it. If a ref isn't certain he sohuldn't give it, the defenders proximity to a well struck ball was probably the deciding (or indecisive) factor.

 

I felt decisions went your way for the third and fourth goals, though we could and should have defended them much better!

 

I do my best in keeping reports neutral (I've had a few angry facebook messages off our players too this season I might add!), when we're cack, we're cack, you can't polish a turd so why try. We weren't quite at it yesterday but didn't deserve a three goal defeat in my opinion, clearcut chances I had 4 for us and 7 for you, you did create a lot more half chances though and in fairness when you knew you needed a goal you always found that extra gear to find one.

 

Hitchin will be a closer game than some may think.

[romulus]

 

Failed to mention the ref was poor throughout,

 

It seemed he reffed on appeal, your players were savvy, got wise to it and won some decisions, ours should have but didn't, another telling factor in the scoreline.

[Mr Rebel]

surprisingly romulus its our players that are the ones that usually don't appeal at all and our opponents that appeal like mad and get the decisions. i think the added "desperation" may have been why we appealed a lot. i think perhaps 2nd half ref did give us a few borderline decisions but 1st half particularly lots of borderline things went against us. standing behind the goal i was amazed that the handball was not given but again the "desperation" factor may have had a bit of an effect. the fact our player had just been penalised for handball when the ref was behind him and could noway see also didn't help the fans reaction for the "penalty"

[romulus]

Mr Rebel, I'd agree re. the desperation, just something I wish we were more vocal about in general, not just yesterday. Ah well...

[Don Juan DeMarcus]

I thought to be honest he made a number of wrong decisions for both teams, obviously the penalty was the harshest from our POV but a few simple throws etc were given the wrong way when he was in a better position than the linesman. But its very rare to get refs/ lino's to be able to keep up with play at this level. And i can agree that the freekick we were given that we scored from was 'questionable' at best.

[Rouser Rebel]

I thought to be honest he made a number of wrong decisions for both teams, obviously the penalty was the harshest from our POV but a few simple throws etc were given the wrong way when he was in a better position than the linesman. But its very rare to get refs/ lino's to be able to keep up with play at this level. And i can agree that the freekick we were given that we scored from was 'questionable' at best.

 

 

What is the saying, what goes round comes round and lets be fair we have had some poor decisions against us this season so perhaps we were due some, more to the point what a great day and yes long overdue why didn't we play like this all season what a day

[romulus]

Slough for me are every bit as good as Hitchin going forward. You looked like you had a soft centre at your place but looked more solid Saturday, the 'keeper made a hell of a difference, not just his saves but he was barking out instructions (sensible ones too, some 'keepers just do it to sound 'in charge') to everyone whenever we had the ball in your half, marshalling a defence is half of the battle as a 'keeper.

 

Hitchin will be hard to beat, they looked very solid when they didn't play well for 10, 20 or 30 minutes, I didn't feel that about Slough in general but based on what I've seen there certainly doesn't deserve to be 23 points between the two sides.

 

For what it's worth I reckon the winner of your game will go up.