Slough suffer heavy defeat at King's Lynn

King's Lynn score five unanswered first-half goals to bring the Rebels back down to earth.

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Slough Town joint manager Neil Baker described the first half at The Walks as his worst 45 minutes in football after watching his side ship five unanswered goals against a rampant King’s Lynn side.

The Rebels scored twice in the second half to reduce the arrears, but the unlikeliest of all comebacks was never on the cards as the Linnets recorded a victory as remarkable as Slough’s 6-0 thumping of Leamington the previous Saturday.

The result represents a fourth league defeat in five for the Rebels, whose promotion push continues to stutter. Most of the damage was done in the opening 13 minutes as King’s Lynn put the Rebels to the sword with three goals.

Just seven minutes had been played when Sam Warburton opened the scoring with a tap-in at the back post.

Slough keeper Mark Scott was still struggling with an injury sustained shortly after when the hosts doubled their lead on 11 minutes. It was a goal the Rebels were furious about as play was allowed to continue despite Shaun McWilliams being in an offside position when he received a flick-on from a teammate, and he was able to curl the ball beyond Scott.

And Slough were further punished within two minutes as the Linnets pushed forward again and worked the ball to the back post, where Warburton was again free to apply the finish.

The visitors were shell-shocked after this early burst of goals and offered little in attack themselves. And on 32 minutes Warburton completed his first senior hat-trick as he burst down the left and placed his finish past a clearly struggling Scott.

Warburton could have had a fourth five minutes later as he fired across goal and wide, but just a minute after that, Slough’s embarrassment increased as McWilliams fired home from the right hand side of the box to make it 5-0.

The game was lost, and the focus perhaps started to shift to Saturday’s match against Dunstable with two changes made at half time, Ashan Holgate and Warren Harris replacing Gavin James and Nathan Webb.

Slough were better in the second half and managed to pull a goal back on 57 minutes, with Holgate laying the ball off for Manny Williams to shoot into the top corner of the net from the opposite edge of the penalty area – his first for the Rebels.

Five minutes later Williams had an effort saved by Alex Street in the Linnets goal as Slough looked for further consolation.

Twenty minutes remained when a corner from Harris had to be pushed out from under the crossbar by Street, with King’s Lynn able to clear. But on 72 minutes Williams played a through ball for Chris Flood, who finished past Street to make it 5-2 – and that is how the game finished as the hosts resisted further Slough pressure.