Rebels’ unbeaten home run goes on
Davies’ side have gone 14 games undefeated at home
Slough Town 3, Taunton Town 0 Slough Town stretched their unbeaten run at Arbour Park to 14 matches with a comfortable and comprehensive 3-0 home win over Taunton Town on Saturday.
A last-gasp defeat at Hampton & Richmond Borough in their last outing tarnished a largely positive festive period for the Rebels, but they brushed off the disappointment in some style at the weekend with Slavi Spasov scoring for a third consecutive game.
Nathan Minhas and Munashe Sundire were also on target as the Rebels moved nine points clear of the drop zone with matches in hand on most other sides in the division.
For the first time this season, player manager Scott Davies may now be able to reassess his goals from simply keeping the Rebels up to something all-together more positive.
While a promotion charge may prove to be beyond them, given their horrendous start to the campaign, they are currently displaying the form of a team that could challenge. Saturday’s win put them 16th in the table yet only eight points adrift of the top seven play-off spots.
Initially, they were made to work hard for their fifth win in eight matches, but they got the job done with a professional performance as late goals from Sundire (77’) and Spasov (88’) added to Minhas’ first half strike.
From the off they looked the more likely scorers, but chances were hard to come by as Taunton defended well in the first halfhour. Sundire saw an early effort fly wide while Dan Bayliss also failed to test Taunton’s Dan Lavercombe in the Taunton goal with a header.
However, Arbour Park was brought to the boil in the 36th minute when Matt Lench’s corner fell to the feet of Minhas who adjusted his feet well to fire home his 11th of the season.
Taunton barely threatened as the game wore on, but the fear was nerves may begin to grow the longer the home side went without a second goal.
David Ogbonna smashed one chance inches wide of the bottom right-hand corner after being released in behind the visitor’s defence. But the home side’s efforts were finally rewarded when the influential Sundire curled a brilliant shot beyond Lavercombe from the edge of the area.
Slough were able to relax a little with a two-goal lead and it wasn’t long before they rounded off a thoroughly professional display with a deserved third.
Ogbonna’s cross found the head of Leon Chambers-Parillon at the back post who directed the ball back across the Taunton area for Spasov to swivel and fire home from close-range.
After the game, Davies posted on X: “Nine wins and five draws in our last 14 home games – 29 scored, eight conceded and nine clean sheets in that time.
“We’ve got ourselves into an extremely good position to get to that 48-50 point mark asap. Hugely proud of everyone involved on and off the pitch.”
Tuesday’s win at Bath City strengthened their play-off claims with the side moving to within five points of the top seven following a 2-1 win at Twerton Park, Spasov and Davies with the goals.