Injury-hit Slough Town look to turn FA Cup momentum into league form

Josh Adepoju celebrates his FA Cup goals with Johnny Goddard and Dan Roth. Photo credit: Cameron Webb.

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While Slough Town’s FA Cup run to the fourth qualifying round has been a nice distraction for the Rebels and their supporters, assistant boss Tony Fontenelle knows they need to refocus on their league campaign and find a way of picking up points on a more regular basis.

Slough head into Saturday’s difficult looking trip to Hampton & Richmond Borough off the back of consecutive league defeats away to Torquay United and home to leaders Hornchurch.

There were mitigating factors for both losses, most notably the first half dismissal of Peter Ojemen in the 5-2 defeat against Hornchurch, however, they’ve also played just twice in the league since September 6 - with their FA Cup clashes against Welling and Bedfont Sports dominating the schedule of late.

The Rebels took two bites of the cherry to see off Welling but needed only one to progress past Bedfont Sports on Saturday, despite falling behind and seeing their goalkeeper Adam Desbois sent off in the first half. The 10 men fought back to win 2-1 at the Bedfont Sports Club with a brace from Josh Adepoju, and they’ll host league rivals Enfield Town in the final qualifying round on October 11.

Before that though, the side are back on league duty at fifth placed Hampton & Richmond Borough.

Injuries have hampered the Rebels progress of late, and Fontenelle spoke of the impact that has had as he looked ahead to the clash this weekend.

“As much as the cup has been a nice distraction, we want to find some form in the league,” he said.

“We have such a small squad that we only need a few key injuries to affect what we’re doing.

“We’ve been managing without six or seven players, and they are players that would have a good chance of starting let alone making the squad. It’s been very difficult to manage, but we’re not using it as an excuse.

“But we feel it when we’re missing some of our more experienced players. But those younger lads who’ve come in have really stepped up to the plate. They have performed magnificently.

“Every point is precious. We haven’t won away from home yet, and I know we’re still in the infancy of the league, but we want to try and get that important away win as soon as possible.

“But going to a place like Hampton is going to be a difficult game. We’ll have a gameplan though that we’ll look to execute.”

Hampton head into Saturday’s game at the Beaveree off the back of a 1-0 win over Merthyr Town in the third qualifying round of the FA Cup on Saturday. Craig Fasanmade (71') scored the only goal in that tie as Hampton set up a tough home tie with Eastleigh in the next round.

Fasanmade also scored twice in the side’s most recent league match, a frustrating 3-3 draw at Dover Athletic where the hosts fought back to level deep into stoppage time.

Slough travel to West London `19th in the table with nine points from nine matches so far.