Rebels And Ricay In No Score Draw

Billericay Town

Slough Town

Date: Saturday, March 24th 2001 | Competition: League | Attendance: 356

Man Of Match: Steve Mautone

Starting Line Up

Substitutes

Slough made two changes to the side which drew 4-4 with Sutton United two weeks back with Paul Coombs replacing Junior Haynes and Chris White returning to defence replacing Steve Stott. The Rebels started quite brightly with wingback Garry Cross getting a lot of joy down the right hand side. It was Cross who had the first effort of the game when his shot from the edge of the area went inches past the post.

Billericay soon woke up and after a short while the Blues had their first real effort on goal. This came from Gary Henty, who saw his shot go just wide. The closest effort of the first period came from 'Ricay's Dean Morris, but his powerful effort went just wide with Mautone scrambling. Despite the Rebels still having a lot of possession in the match they never really threatened the Billericay goal - despite having 8 corners in the first half which were all poorly delivered.

The boggy pitch at Billericay did not help both sets of teams, but surprisingly they both adapted to the conditions well and despite a lack of goalmouth action in the first half, it was quite an entertaining half.

Five minutes after the break Billericay had a great chance to take the lead. Garry Cross was caught dallying on the ball in the area, the ball was taken off his foot by Kevin Jordan, but the left back, off balance fired well wide of the Slough goal. This half turned into a fairly dull affair compared to the first half, with the pitch cutting up and both sets of players looking tired and jaded.

But Billericay did nearly take the lead midway through the half when some good passing ended up with Billericay's most dangerous player Joe Baker hitting a volley which was superbly saved low down by Mautone. The Rebels had a chance of their own five minutes later. Some good play between Coombs, Marshall and Wilkinson ended up with Paul Holsgrove hitting a half volley from the edge of the area, which was well saved by Gavin King.

Slough replaced Damien Markman and Dave Rainford in place of Paul Coombs and Paul Holsgrove in a last gasp effort to win the match, but despite a number of late corners the Rebels once again did not create any chances from their set pieces. Billericay had the last chance of the game though when Baker's free kick was headed over by Chris Moore. Both sides ended up with a fair point as neither side deserved to lose the match in a fairly even game.