Slough were determined not to let blip become rut
Slough Town FC: Chris Winton full of praise for Rebels after they bounce back from defeats to beat Weston
Slough Town were determined not to let their blip become more of a rut as they ended their two-game losing streak with a 2-0 victory over Weston-Super-Mare on Saturday.
A couple of defeats on the road, to sides at the opposite end of the National League South table in Dover and Yeovil Town, had stalled the Rebels’ recent momentum, but they suffocated Weston with their pressing game on Saturday to wrestle that back in fine fashion.
A rocky opening 10 minutes suggested they hadn’t quite got the fatigue from those trips out of their legs, but the Rebels are a different animal on home turf, and they quickly settled to their task.
Matt Lench fired them in front with a slide-rule finish in the 27th minute and Jeanmal Prosper guided home a header from a corner early in the second half to give them a two-goal cushion. Those two players vied for the man-of-the-match award, but in truth this was a team effort and one which owed much to the work first coaches like Chris Winton had put in on the training field.
Reflecting on the result after the final whistle, Winton said: “We’ve pressed well of late, and there have been a couple of times when we’ve not quite got it right, but I felt that – barring the first 10 minutes today – our shape was good and our shape off the ball was good.
“We didn’t come off that shape vert much and they weren’t able to hurt us much because of that.
“Everyone is very pleased and happy in their (the changing room). When you lose a couple of games on the bounce, you don’t want it to become a third.
“But we have a lot of resilience in the group to bounce back and we’ve shown that we can do that, time and time again.
“It has been a difficult month in terms of travel. I think we’ve covered 2,000miles and it might even be more than that.
“The long away trips do take it out of you, and it was a 3am return on Wednesday morning. But the boys trained on Thursday and there was no hangover from it.
“They looked sharp again and it’s a testament to the boys we’ve got here and what they’re capable.”
Lench hasn’t been in formidable form in front of goal this season, however, his strike on Saturday came at a crucial stage of the game and set the hosts on course for victory. It also came from a move the Rebels have worked on in training, with Lench running in behind the Weston defence to collect Nathan Minhas’ pass before firing home left footed. It wasn’t the only time in the game the Rebels managed to hurt Weston with midfielders running from deep, and Johnny Goddard should really have capped off Saturday’s hardworking display with a third goal late on when he went through on goal in similar circumstances.
“With the first goal, we’ve spoken to our midfielders about running in behind,” said Winton. “It’s horrible when midfielders do that because most of the time the person marking them doesn’t want to track back.
“More often than not they’ll allow them to go, and we managed to get in a few times today doing that. Lenchy was brilliant today, and then the timing of the second goal takes the sting out of the game a bit and allows us to be a bit calmer.
“We knew they’d have to come back at us, and they would have a spell of pressure, and we were unhappy that they managed to get an overload on a couple of occasions, but that’s nit-picking really.
“There are always things to brush up on, but I feel like we deal pretty well with balls into the box now.”
Having been candidates for relegation just a few weeks ago, the Rebels are now just four points off the play-off spots and can lay down another marker if they win at play-off rivals Torquay United on Saturday.
“We’re at Torquay next weekend, and that’s another long trip,” said Winton. “But they lost again today and are in a bit of a rut so it might be a good time to go there.
“You’ve got to respect your opposition and we know they’re a good side, but we’ll back ourselves to go there and get a good result.
“That’s 16 games unbeaten at home now and when you look at the first seven games of the season, teams were taking points off us fairly easily. We’ve now turned that around and it’s testament to the character of the group Scott (Davies) has here.”