Goddard and Eweka on target in win at Parkside
Slough Town FC: Rebels emerge victorious against play-off chasing Aveley
Aveley 0, Slough Town 2 Slough Town secured their second 2-0 win in the space of a week as the Rebels defeated Aveley away from home on Saturday afternoon to move further clear of the National League South drop zone.
Having swept Hemel Hempstead Town aside at Arbour Park in mid-week, the Rebels secured their second three-point haul in the space of five days as second half goals from Johnny Goddard and Temi Eweka earned the visitors one of their best results of the season.
Aveley have been in and amongst the play-off chasing sides for much of the campaign so far, however, their form leading into today’s clash at Parkside Stadium was mixed to say the least, while the Rebels have won five of their last seven matches in all competitions.
They came into the clash having extended their unbeaten run at Arbour Park to 12 matches with Tuesday’s 2-0 win over Hemel and their hard work paid off once again at Aveley this afternoon.
The visitors handled Aveley’s early pressure well, clearing numerous corners inside the opening 10 minutes, but they grew into the game as the half wore on with David Ogbonna looking a threat down the right side of Aveley’s defence.
Nathan Minhas came close to a third goal in as many matches when he narrowly failed to turn home Goddard’s cross in the 18th minute and Goddard came close a few minutes later when he turned well in the box only to be crowded out by the Millers’ defence.
The visitors managed to get into half-time with the score all square and then lifted their levels for the second period. There were huge handball shouts when Goddard’s cross in the 51st minute appeared to strike an Aveley arm in the area, but the referee waved away Slough’s appeals.
The goal they were looking for arrived just six minutes later and once again it was Goddard who got it. The Rebels’ midfielder capitalised on a long throw-in to muscle past his marker and smash the ball past Jonathan North for his 11th goal of the season.
It should have been 2-0 just after the hour mark when Josh Jackman’s goal bound header from around four yards out was clawed out on the line by North’s reflex save.
However, the visitors gave themselves the breathing space they deserved in the 65th minute when Matt Lench beat his man on the byline and whipped the ball into the box for Eweka to smash it past North. It wasn’t the best of defending from the hosts’, but player manager Scott Davies couldn't care less as the visitors took a real strangle hold on the contest.
Ogbonna was replaced by Mikel Platt and Lench by
Joe Dandy as the game moved into its latter stages. Dandy's appearance was his 50th for the Rebels who saw out the remainder of the game - including six minutes of stoppage time for a fairly comfortable away win.