We were hampered by the absence of the injured Matt Day and Alan O’Brien, and compounded the problem by gifting Slough a goal in the third minute, after which we faced an uphill task and did not do enough to rescue this FA Trophy tie, Our tough trip to Merthyr in the FA Cup on Saturday therefore becomes more important and more difficult.
The game had had hardly kicked off when Paul Strudley misjudged a speculative ball into the penalty area, the defenders failed to get the loose ball away, and Ed Smith had the easiest chance to tap the ball home.

We had plenty of the play but Mark Draycott and Like Hopper both lost possession when in good attacking positions, and Hopper fired over the bar in another attack. We did manage to hit the bar, but the offside flag was raised and would have denied us a goal in any case. The Slough central defensive pairing easily cut out any long balls into the penalty area and we never got round the back of the defence to cause the home side any real danger, but a straight red card for Sean Sonner just before half-time left the home side a man short for over 45 minutes.

After the interval, Tom Fila shot high and wide following a corner but we were unlucky when a hard low cross from Bradley Gray flew across the face of the goal with no one able to get a touch. However, we often gave the ball away with long passes and the home side held on fairly comfortably.

It needed a great save by Strudley to prevent Slough from increasing their lead but, at the other end James Warrington made a full-length save to deflect a Ryan Crockford free-kick away and was soon in action again with another good save. Just as it looked as if that early gift goal would settle the game, Stuart Swift was left in the clear and he blasted the ball past Strudley and Luke Hopper made it 2-1 in the 90th. Minute. There was still plenty of added time but we were unable to rescue the game and Slough earned a place in the next round, in which they will entertain Gosport Borough.