Slough Town
2
Basingstoke Town
4
Friendly
Slough Town were beaten 4-2 by Southern League Premier South side Basingstoke Town at Arbour Park on Tuesday evening in their latest pre-season outing.
The visitors threatened inside the opening two minutes, with Arthur Gregory producing an excellent goal-line clearance to preserve parity. Slough settled well after the early scare and created several promising openings, while Basingstoke also had an effort ruled out for offside after a free-kick struck the post before the rebound was turned in by an offside player.
The deadlock was eventually broken five minutes before the interval when Chiriac found space inside the penalty area and curled a composed finish into the top corner, giving the visitors a 1-0 half-time lead despite an encouraging opening 45 minutes from the Rebels.
Alan Julian made two changes at the break, introducing Dan Roth and Louis Walsh, and Slough responded immediately after the restart. A dangerous delivery from Latrell Humphrey-Ewers picked out Godlove Oppong at the back post, whose header cannoned back off the upright. Tarik Gidaree reacted quickest to convert the rebound and level the scores.
The celebrations were short-lived, however, as Adebiyi restored Basingstoke’s lead within a minute. Julian then continued to rotate his squad, introducing a host of fresh legs as preparations for the new season stepped up.
Basingstoke extended their advantage through Okine-Peters after 73 minutes, but Slough refused to give in. Excellent combination play between Ruben Shakpoke and Jaiden Drakes-Thomas carved open the visitors’ defence, with Drakes-Thomas finishing smartly to make it 3-2 with two minutes remaining. Any hopes of a late equaliser were ended in stoppage time when Sylla finished a swift counter-attack to complete a 4-2 victory for the visitors.
Speaking after the match, assistant manager Donovan Chislett admitted the Rebels had fallen below the standards they expect.
“Not the best performance in the world from a quality point of view. We dropped off quite a bit tonight, which is a bit disappointing. Maybe that’s due to where we are in pre-season with our load and the physical work we’ve been doing, but we still can’t get away from the fact it was disappointing on the whole.”
Despite the defeat, Chislett felt there were positives to take from spells of Slough’s attacking play.
“There were some good moments and some good attacking play at times, but generally not enough conviction with our final-third play. We worked the ball well into those areas, but there wasn’t enough desire to put the ball in the back of the net.”
He also pointed to errors in possession as a key reason for conceding four goals.
“For a lot of their goals, I thought we gave the ball away really cheaply in really vulnerable areas of the pitch, which was naive. That’s something we clearly need to work on and improve.”
There was positive news regarding Godlove Oppong, who was substituted early in the second half.
“That’s just cramp, so fortunately it’s not another injury. We were concerned for a little bit, but he should be fine by Saturday or even Thursday’s training.”
Chislett also expects the squad to be strengthened by the return of several senior players over the coming days.
“The outlook is looking a lot better and we should have a couple more returning by Saturday. Within the next seven to ten days we should be back to a full complement, so that’s something to look forward to.”
The Rebels return to action on Saturday at Fleet Town (1pm KO) as their preparations for the new National League South campaign continue.
The visitors threatened inside the opening two minutes, with Arthur Gregory producing an excellent goal-line clearance to preserve parity. Slough settled well after the early scare and created several promising openings, while Basingstoke also had an effort ruled out for offside after a free-kick struck the post before the rebound was turned in by an offside player.
The deadlock was eventually broken five minutes before the interval when Chiriac found space inside the penalty area and curled a composed finish into the top corner, giving the visitors a 1-0 half-time lead despite an encouraging opening 45 minutes from the Rebels.
Alan Julian made two changes at the break, introducing Dan Roth and Louis Walsh, and Slough responded immediately after the restart. A dangerous delivery from Latrell Humphrey-Ewers picked out Godlove Oppong at the back post, whose header cannoned back off the upright. Tarik Gidaree reacted quickest to convert the rebound and level the scores.
The celebrations were short-lived, however, as Adebiyi restored Basingstoke’s lead within a minute. Julian then continued to rotate his squad, introducing a host of fresh legs as preparations for the new season stepped up.
Basingstoke extended their advantage through Okine-Peters after 73 minutes, but Slough refused to give in. Excellent combination play between Ruben Shakpoke and Jaiden Drakes-Thomas carved open the visitors’ defence, with Drakes-Thomas finishing smartly to make it 3-2 with two minutes remaining. Any hopes of a late equaliser were ended in stoppage time when Sylla finished a swift counter-attack to complete a 4-2 victory for the visitors.
Speaking after the match, assistant manager Donovan Chislett admitted the Rebels had fallen below the standards they expect.
“Not the best performance in the world from a quality point of view. We dropped off quite a bit tonight, which is a bit disappointing. Maybe that’s due to where we are in pre-season with our load and the physical work we’ve been doing, but we still can’t get away from the fact it was disappointing on the whole.”
Despite the defeat, Chislett felt there were positives to take from spells of Slough’s attacking play.
“There were some good moments and some good attacking play at times, but generally not enough conviction with our final-third play. We worked the ball well into those areas, but there wasn’t enough desire to put the ball in the back of the net.”
He also pointed to errors in possession as a key reason for conceding four goals.
“For a lot of their goals, I thought we gave the ball away really cheaply in really vulnerable areas of the pitch, which was naive. That’s something we clearly need to work on and improve.”
There was positive news regarding Godlove Oppong, who was substituted early in the second half.
“That’s just cramp, so fortunately it’s not another injury. We were concerned for a little bit, but he should be fine by Saturday or even Thursday’s training.”
Chislett also expects the squad to be strengthened by the return of several senior players over the coming days.
“The outlook is looking a lot better and we should have a couple more returning by Saturday. Within the next seven to ten days we should be back to a full complement, so that’s something to look forward to.”
The Rebels return to action on Saturday at Fleet Town (1pm KO) as their preparations for the new National League South campaign continue.
Slough Town Line up
Full squad: Josh Brooking, Kyle Brooks, Caiden Cartey, Jaiden Drakes-Thomas, Michael Edegbe, Tarik Gidaree, Arthur Gregory, Latrell Humphrey-Ewers, Jaye Long, Balu Makumbi, Josh McNamara, Ethan Mosdell, Jared Myers, Brian Nelson, Jurij Neretin, George Norris, Godlove Oppong, Bilal Sajid Ouardi, Dan Roth, Ruben Shakpoke, George Vorster, Louis Walsh.