Slough Town deservedly beaten by Bath City as away woes continue

Charlie Horlock played well, but was beaten twice at Twerton Park. Photo: George Beck

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Bath City 2, Slough Town 0

Slough Town aren’t quite out of the woods just yet, as the Rebels succumbed to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Bath City last night.

After the controversy of last season’s match between the sides at Arbour Park, and the Rebels comfortable and convincing 3-0 victory over the Romans at home in early November, Scott Davies received a fair amount of stick from the home supporters as his side went down to a deserved away defeat.

The Rebels form on the road is now a cause for concern for Davies – as it has been for some time.

‘Terrible’ was the word he used to describe Slough’s recent results on the road in his post-match interview, and you must go back to November 26 - and their 3-0 win at Chippenham Town - for the last time the Rebels tasted victory away from Arbour Park.

They came into this clash off the back of two decent draws at Welling United (2-2) and home to Farnborough (1-1) on Saturday, results that edged the side a little further clear of the drop zone.

However, Davies will know that while games are running out for rival to catch them, they’re not yet completely out of the woods in terms of relegation. That threat continues to loom over them and will do until they can bag themselves one or two more victories to end any doubt.

They remain 11 points clear of the bottom four in the National League South - with only eight matches left to play - however, some of the teams in the bottom four - most notably St Albans City and Welling United - do have a game in hand on them,

At Twerton Park last night, Bath had the better of the early stages, and had already forced Charlie Horlock into a series of saves before they took the lead in the 16th minute through Alex Fisher.

Slough then created their only decent chance of the half when Guy Hollis’s long throw in caused panic in the Romans’ backline and David Ogbonna was able to prod the ball goalwards, but Bath’s keeper Wiles-Richards was able to save.

Hollis was only fit enough to play the first half and was replaced at the interval by Francis Amartey, with the Rebels changing shape for the second period.

This left the visitors without three of their preferred back four with Dan Bayliss out for the season with a broken cheekbone and Lewis Miccio also missing last night’s game through injury.

Defensively it made life more difficult against a Bath side playing with real intensity. The Rebels responded reasonably well for 15 minutes, and Slavi Spasov forced the Bath keeper into a save with a curling shot in the 65th minute. They also had a couple of dangerous crosses that the Bath defence just about managed to deal with.

But Bath were able to double their lead with just over 10 minutes to play when Alves managed to break through on the left-side and forced a parry from Horlock, the ball falling kindly for Brad Ash to slot home.

Slough are back in action this Saturday when they travel to 13th placed Hornchurch.