'Red card was the spark': Slough Town show spirit to keep FA Cup run going

Slough Town in action at Bedfont Sports on Saturday. Photo: Cameron Webb

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Having fallen behind and then seen their goalkeeper Adam Desbois sent off in the first half, it looked like Saturday’s FA Cup third qualifying round tie at Bedfont Sports wasn’t going to go Slough Town’s way.

However, assistant boss Tony Fontenelle feels Desbois’ dismissal in the 25th minute - which came shortly after the Rebels had fallen behind to a goal from Ollie Davison in the 19th minute - galvanised the visitors into making a response.

With their backs to the wall at the Bedfont Sports Club, the Rebels had one of two options, feel sorry for themselves and succumb to a surprise exit, or rally and drag themselves back onto level terms and then ahead to book their place in the final qualifying round.

Thankfully, the visitors chose the latter, and Josh Adepoju’s brave and clinically taken brace, saw the step 2 side through to a home tie with National League South rivals Enfield Town on Saturday, October 11.

Speaking this week, Fontenelle said the sending off gave the Rebels the ‘spark’ they’d been missing in the opening half an hour.

“We told them, we may be down by a man, but your work rate can make up for that,” he said.

“It forced us into a position where we had to do something. It gave us that tenacity, the urgency and fear of losing. It gave us that spark to up our levels, which we managed to do.

“Credit to Josh, he’s come through the youth team and come into the folds of the first team in pre-season. He’s probably achieved more in a short space of time than we and I expect he imagined. He’s a great technician and he’s got a very bright future. He’s open to learning and has fitted in with the group. It feels like he’s been with us for a lot longer than he has. That’s a great testament to himself.”

Fontenelle can’t put his finger on why Slough started the game so slowly against opponents from the Isthmian League South Central Division - two levels below their league - but he accepts they possibly should have been more than one goal down in the first half.

“I don’t feel like we started the game properly,” he said.

“We were a little slow to get going. Everything we’d worked on in training, we didn’t really execute the game plan.

“Credit to Bedfont, they got into a deserved lead in my opinion.

“They were then unfortunate not to go on and get a second goal. One of their chances led to Adam having to make a quick decision which resulted in a red card for denying a goalscoring opportunity and at that point, you’re thinking this is potentially not going to be our day.

“But we regrouped, and you must give credit to our lads. They’ve managed to find a way.

“The only frustration is that we had another couple of opportunities, and we weren’t quite able to finish those chances.

“When you’re a man down, you know they’re never out of the game, so when the full-time whistle blew it was such a relief. Massive congratulations to our lads but equal congratulations to Bedfont for making it such a tough game.”

Their opponents in the next round, Enfield Town, sit just above them in the table and are level with them on points. They’ve already played each other in the league at Arbour Park, a tense 1-1 draw, and Fontenelle believes a similar result would suit the visitors once again.

“It was a tight-knit game,” he said. “We’re at home but it’s going to be a tough game. We’re still nursing players back. Enfield will be a difficult team to overcome and I’m sure they’ll be relishing the occasion.

“They’ll make it difficult for us to breakdown and if they can’t beat us on the day they’ll look to take it to a replay.”