Match day

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Welling United (H)
Sat Apr 20
15:00

Match day

Team logo
Welling United (H)
Sat Apr 20 15:00
The Vanarama National League South
10th
67pts

Rebels Lord it over Bath

Slough Town

Slough Town

2
Knight (45), Joseph (78)
Bath City

Bath City

0
Bob Lord Trophy Attendance: 589 Phill Burns
Slough moved into the second round of the Bob Lord trophy without too much fuss on Tuesday night.

Suffering from a 1-2 first leg deficit in the Conference League Cup, the Rebels turned the tables to make the next phase.

But it could have been a much different story if the Rebels had converted their pressure.

From the kick off, with Tony Knight replacing Mark Hill at the back as the only change, Slough were rampant.

For the first fifteen minutes they destroyed a shaky Bath defence and carved out opportunity after opportunity.

Slick one touch movements ran the Romans full backs ragged and the visitors didn't know which way to turn as the crosses thundered in from either flank.

But the several efforts that Slough created were off target with headers drifting over the bar and shots either side of the uprights.

The Rebels best early effort came when Steve Thompson's pace was too much for player manager Tony Ricketts and he robbed him of the ball but could only watch as his effort drifted over the bar.

Eammon O'Connor produced some fine work on the left and Colin Fielder nipped in to head over the bar and surely a goal was going to come soon?

Both Ricketts and Ian Weston went into the book for unorthodox methods of preventing the Slough forward movement but they could do nothing about the Rebels opening goal on 45 minutes.

Thompson's cross was blocked on the right and ran to Tony Knight who blasted a superb shot into the far corner for a rare goal.

Phil Burns, looking stronger and stronger with every game, pulled off some superb saves when Bath applied second half pressure to get back into the game.

He produced a fine stop when Paul Randall nipped in on a free kick and was then alert to save at Weston's feet minutes later, then taking the sting out of another Weston effort with Knight following up to clear off the line.

The defence was static when Richard Crowley blasted wide from a corner and it was clear that the Rebels had lost a lot of first half cohesion with Bath banging an early ball straight back into their defence.

Slough tried to push forward but found themselves immediately back on the defensive, though slowly their forward movement became more telling.

Burns had to make some good saves to prevent the visitors from grabbing a goal that would have won them the tie on aggregate.

But as Bath pushed forward, they were eventually caught out in the 78th minute.

The ball was whipped in to the far post where new striker Francis Joseph controlled and lifted into the back of the net to mark his home debut with a goal.

Both Paul McKinnon and Joseph were close in the dying stages and the final whistle sent Slough through to meet the winners of the Cheltenham and Kidderminster match at home in a game played in one leg only.

Bath City Lineup

Rebels

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